Hearts of Oak coach CK Akunnor has explained that he was forced to substitute Uriah Asante in the Ghana Premier League due to injury.
The 19-year-old was taken off for James Abban after just 30 minutes into Heart' 2-1 loss to Asante Kotoko on Sunday.
It is the second successive time the ex Pure Joy player has been unable to complete a full game.
He was stretched off clutching his groin in last week's 3-0 win over All Stars but returned to full scale training in the build up to the big ''Super Clash''.
Asante was visibly unhappy with the substitution but Akunnor said the move was a precautionary measure to protect the player from aggravating the injury.
''We took a risk to play Uriah (Asante) because he was injured,'' Akunnor told GHANAsoccernet.com.
''We were therefore watching him and we realized he wasn't at his peak due to the problem and also because he was suffering from several knocks so we had to take him off as a precautionary measure.''