Ghana prepare home-based players for AFCON qualifier against South Africa 

Local Black StarsThe Black Stars of Ghana will begin camping on Monday 15 February 2021 ahead of the AFCON double-header against South Africa and Sao Tome and Principe.Ghana coach CK Akonnor has named a 32-man squad all locally based to begin preparations for the game next month.Ghanaian giants Asante Kotoko have the most players invited to the squad followed by Great Olympics with four players, Medeama with three players and Hearts of Oak with just one call-up.According to CK Akonnor, the decision to hand call-ups to local-based players is due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on travel restrictions making it difficult to get foreign-based players for the game.”It has become necessary to do this because of the challenges we faced before the Ghana versus Sudan match when players were not able to come because of COVID-19 issues”. coach Akonnor explained the reason for handing call-ups to the local-based players.”We made some late call ups but travelling restrictions and quarantine issues made things difficult for us. So, management and the technical team thought it wise to do this by inviting a chunk of home players to move to camp to prepare for the games.”We believe that once the time gets closer, we will look at the foreign players who are doing well and without issues of COVID-19 to join the players. With all this at stake, we (myself and the rest of the technical team) have been able to go around to look into what is going on with our clubs and I must commend our coaches for a good job done”, he added.The list will be pruned down to accommodate some foreign-based players who will be invited to join the team.