Ghana coach Paa Kwesi Fabin appears to have blamed his team's opening defeat to Nigeria in the WAFU B U-17 tournament on the disqualification of 20 players.
The Black Starlets were defeated 4-2 in their first match on Saturday at the Cape Coast Stadium.
Fabin was forced to form a new team just two weeks before the tournament because 20 of the 28 players he assembled failed an MRI test.
Fabin's new team were humbled by Nigeria, putting them in a difficult position to advance to the next stage of the competition.
"I don’t like to make excuses but about three weeks to the tournament the FA President [Kurt Okraku] asked the CAF medical team to do an MRI of our boys so out of 28, 20 were disqualified so, so we had to use about 2 and half weeks to build this team, we lost but I believe we’ll come back stronger," coach Fabin said.
Ghana must win their final game against Togo to stand a chance of progressing from the group.
A group stage exit would mean missing out on the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations, which serves as a World Cup qualifier.