Ayew brothers to miss USA, Mexico friendlies

Ghana may miss the services of Andre and Jordan Ayew for upcoming friendly matches against Mexico and USA on June 28 and July 1 respectively, Goal understands.

The siblings, who played part in Ghana’s 5-0 thumping of Ethiopia in the 2019 Afcon qualifiers on Sunday, have notified Ghana Football Association to excuse them from the trip in order to take some rest ahead of their English Premier League pre-season schedules.

The games will be the first friendlies under coach Kwesi Appiah following the cancellation of a meeting with Nigeria in London last May.

The Black Stars will face Mexico at the Houston Dynamo Stadium before locking horns with USA three days later at the Pratt & Whitney Stadium in East Hartford, Connecticut.

Reports suggest that some of the local players have had issues with their visas for the trip, while Leicester City midfielder Daniel Amartey is believed to have telephoned coach Appiah to exclude him from the trip citing similar reasons as the Ayews.

Andre’s West Ham are expected to embark on a ten-day tour across Europe with two games against Bundesliga side Werder Bremen in the 2017 Betway Cup on July 28 and 29.

Jordan, on the other hand, will join Swansea for their pre-season schedule which also includes a ten-day tour of the US, with friendly matches against Philadelphia Union (July 15), Richmond Kickers (July 19) and North Carolina (July 22).

However, it remains unclear whether the GFA and coach Appiah will grant the players their request before the team departs for the USA next week.