Ghana appoints ex-Jamaica star as fitness trainer for AFCON

England-born Jamaican international Jamie Lawrence has been appointed as Ghana’s fitness for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations next month, GHANAsoccernet.com can confirm.

The 44-year, who played for English Premier League side Leicester, will arrive in Accra on Sunday night to start the work with the Black Stars as they prepare for the tournament to be played in Equatorial Guinea.

The former manager of Southern League side Ashford Town, who is a qualified fitness trainer, will put the Black Stars through their paces to keep them in top shape for the competition.

He confirmed that he is on his way to Accra tonight to start the work with the Black Stars for the competition.

“Up ready waiting for my taxi and off to Ghana I go. Buzzing 7 weeks away,” Lawrence wrote on Twitter.

Lawrence notably played Premier League football for both Leicester City and Bradford City, having also played as a professional for Sunderland, Doncaster Rovers, Walsall, Wigan Athletic, Grimsby Town and Brentford before playing in the Non-League game for Worthing, Harrow Borough and Margate.

He also represented Jamaica 24 times.

Lawrence was, as a youth, involved in crime and in 1990 received a four-year prison sentence for a bank robbery.

While playing for his prison side, he was spotted by Cowes Sports, and then while playing for them spotted by Sunderland manager Terry Butcher.

Since then he has cleaned up his life and has served as a mentor for several black children in the UK to have now become sports stars.

He became the author of his own autobiography From Prison to the Premiership, published in 2006, which was co-authored with Ron Shillingford.