Coach Afranie drops Hamza

A 30-man contingent made up of 21 players and eight officials of the senior national team, the Black Stars, are in Cotonou, Benin, but without a key midfielder, Hamza Mohammed, as the two countries battle in a return international friendly tomorrow, Saturday.

Caretaker coach Emmanuel Afranie dropped the player minutes before the team left Tema on Wednesday at a special player-handlers meeting on the grounds that Hamza joined the team just two days before the departure.

Hamza and Charles Taylor failed to join their colleagues for the two week camping at Tema for unexplained reasons. However, the former Kotoko player decided to join his mates after a news paper publications to the effect that he had failed to report in camp.

But the player told the GNA Sports that he had earlier communicated his late arrival to an official who he could not name.

He said his inability to report earlier was due to some personal problems adding "I did not intend to shun the Black Stars".

Meanwhile, the Beninois national team has been beefed up with the inclusion of six foreign-based players to ensure a massive victory on Saturday.

Three of the players are from France, one from Swiszerland and their key player, Chrysosiome Damier, who plys his trade in Italy.

Assistant coach Ekoue Moise told the GNA Sports that Saturday's squad would be different from the one that lost to Ghana some three weeks ago in Kumasi.

He said a different script would be written on Saturday, because most of the boys were in the team that thrashed Tanzania 4-0 in an African Cup of Nations in Benin recently.

But Afranie brushed aside his bluff and said " my boys will upset these people before their own home fans".

He said his locally assembled players are determined to chalk another victory as a means of securing their own positions in the new-look Black Stars.

The coach, though disappointed that his four foreign-based players including skipper Stephen Appiah failed to come down for the match, is confident that the youthful looking local stars will lift high the flag of Ghana.

Afranie was tight-lipped on the starting line up but a probable side could include Abukari Kankani, Aziz Ansah, Godfred Yeboah, Daniel Yeboah, Kwabena Boafo, Michael Asante, Kobina Dodzie, Stephen Oduro and Wisdom Abbey.