Accra, March 4, GNA -- The Continental Club Masters, Accra Hearts of Oak will trek to Bamako, Mali as guest of Stade de Malien at the weekend without the services of their arrow striker, Ablade Morgan due to a knee injury.
The Phobians' who left Accra on a chartered flight to Mali, dropped the player who has been unable to recover from a knee injury he sustained during the team's friendly game against city rivals, Accra Great Olympics at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Morgan who scored all the two goals for Hearts in the game, which ended 2-1 in their favour, saw a last minute substitute of Prince Tagoe to join the 18-man squad to begin their continental campaign. The exclusion of the striker brings the number of dropped key players to three as influential striker, Bernard Don Bortey and goalkeeper James Nanor also missed the boat.
While Nanor was dropped on merit, Bortey gave coach Ernst Middendorp no option having absented himself from training for the whole week, opting to secure a visa for a supposed trial with a German first division side, SV Hamburg.
The exclusion of the two strikers will no doubt deplete the Phobians' attack against their old foes who whipped them 3-1 in a similar game two years ago at the same venue.
Hearts, the 2000 CAF Champions league winners, have not had a good run with the tournament since their triumph, having failed on three consecutive occasions to reach the lucrative mini league stage. The players making the trip are Sammy Adjei, Eben "Dida" Armah, skipper Yaw Amankwah Mireku, Daniel Coleman, Kwame Antwi, Daniel Oppong, Daniel Quaye, Louis Agyeman, Kwabena Boafo, Adjah Tetteh, Frank Kornu and Francis Bossman.
The rest are Prince Tagoe, Samed Abdul, Alfred Nii Larbi, Adjebu Lawson and Lawrence Adjei.
Coach Middendorp, Emmanuel Ofei-Ansah, Steve Akwetey, Sabhan Quaye and Aliu Adjei, the masseur led the technical team.
