Ghana coach Charles Akonnor has suffered big blows as five players he invited for the Black Stars friendlies against Mali and Qatar have been ruled out for various reasons.
This means the Black Stars have been seriously depleted for the matches to be played in Turkey and have swiftly handed call-ups to two players to fil the void created.
Three key players have been ruled out because of travelling visa problems and they will join Jeffrey Schlupp and Mohammed Kudus who are already ruled out of the game in Antalya.
Egypt-based striker John Antwi, goalkeeper Richard Ofori who plays in South Africa and Lumor Abgenyenu of Sporting Lisbon are all not available for next week's matches.
The trio have not been able to secure work visas to enable them travel for the two matches in the Turkish city of Antalya which means they won't be available for the two matches.
As a result, the Black Stars coach Akonnor has been forced to hand late call-ups to the Turkey based duo of Joseph Paintsil and Caleb Ekuban to join the team for the matches.
The Ghana FA has confirmed that the duo won't be available for the two matches and that visa issues knocked out of the games.
“The news about John Antwi, Richard Ofori and Lumor is true. They can’t make it to Turkey,” Ghana FA spokesman Henry Asante Twum said.
“Per immigration laws, when people apply for Turkish visa, they need to attach their valid work permit to their visa applications.
“Unfortunately, these players have their work permits expired with their various clubs and are in the process of renewing them but that will take two weeks.
“We are left with no option but to exclude them from the list. For coach Akonnor, it would have been appropriate to have a full house so he could have a feel of all the players but the situation demands we replace them,” he added.
The absence of the five players is a blow to coach Akonnor who is keen on preparing his squad to ensure his smooth start as the coach of the senior national team.
Akonnor and his team left Ghana on Saturday night for the games against Mali and Qatar. Both games will take place in Antalya.
They will be joined by the players invited latest by Tuesday to start preparing for the games.
The Black Stars will take on Mali on October 9 before facing off with Asian side Qatar on October 12, 2020.
This will be Akonnor’s first games since his appointment in January. His debut delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic.