Black Stars coach Kwasi Appiah has indicated that returnee midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah is being cautiously handled ahead of the Kenya clash due to a recent fitness concern.
Asamoah has still not fully recovered from an ankle problem which forced his substitution in the 66th minute of Inter Milan’s 2-2 home draw with Torino on August 26. He was restricted from group training until last Thursday.
The 29-year-old had to pass a late fitness test before featuring full minutes at left-back in Inter Milan’s 3-0 victory away to Bologna in the Serie A on Saturday.
Despite still feeling some discomfort in his ankle, the versatile player made his way for international duty to mark his return to the Ghana national team after four years out.
Asamoah arrived at the Black Stars camp in Addis Ababa Wednesday morning and went ahead to train with the side an hour later. During the session at the Ethiopia Youth Sport Academy, he was seen limping before pulling out halfway in what is suspected to be precautionary.
And giving an update on the star player, the Ghana coach said:
“He [Kwadwo Asamoah] had a small injury. Just that I don’t want to create a problem for him to make it worse. It’s important we treat it and he trains slowly himself,” Appiah told Ethiopian freelance journalist Omna Taddele.
19 players have so far reported to camp with Harrison Afful the last expected to join the team later on Wednesday.
Ghana are preparing to face Kenya in Nairobi in a Group F fixture of the qualifying campaign to next year’s Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon. The game is scheduled for Saturday at 1300 GMT.
