By: Felix Abayteye, Graphic
Fears that the injury to dependable defender John Paintsil might rule him out of Wednesday's crucial match against Germany has been allayed by the stars medical team.
According to team officials who rushed the player to hospital immediately after last Saturday's match in which he injured the nose for a suspected fracture, "Paintsil is okay and can play in Wednesday's game against Germany if the coach wants", they have revealed in the team's camp.
"Initially we suspected the player might have suffered a fracture of the nose as he bled on the pitch, but after careful examination at the hospital we found no such calamity", Stars medical officials told the Daily Graphic.
Paintsil, who was the main organiser of the Ghanaian defence in the absence of the trusted John Mensah last Saturday, fell on the pitch and bled profusely from the nose after a heading duel during one of the stabbing raids by their Australian opponents in the last embers of the 1-1 drawn match.
The incident left many Ghanaian fans and officials worried over another possible casualty for the team as he was stretchered off the field for first aid and later sent for observation under the scan at the hospital.
His good health is good news to the Ghana team at the world cup which has been tormented by the growing incidence of player injuries.
A day prior to their match against the Aussies, young central defender, Isaac Vorsah, got injured at the team's training and Coach Milovan Rajevac had to risk the pair of Jonathan Mensah and Lee Addy at the centre of defence against the Socceroos.