Gideon Mensah 'not really scared about' 8 players withdrawing from Black Stars squad

Ghana left-back Gideon Mensah says he’s not alarmed about eight players pulling out from the Black Stars squad ahead of their final 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers.

Gideon admitted that it’s a big loss for the team to lose these eight key members of the squad but he believes the replacements are good enough.

The Auxerre defender spoke to the media after the opening training session of the team before they travel to Luanda to face Angola on Friday, November 15, 2024.

“For me, I think first of all, every player in the national team is very crucial to the team. And then obviously, we have players that we are always looking up to see in the national team, and we have players that are also there to support when other players are not there. It’s a big loss for us.”

“But also at this time, at the end of the day, we still have a team to cover up. And then I’m not really scared about that. So, when one is not there, another person is ready to play for me,” said the 26-year-old after the Black Stars’ first training session yesterday.

6 players called as replacement

Eight players pulled out from Otto Addo’s 25-man squad to battle Angola and Niger yesterday.

These were Inaki Williams, Antoine Semenyo, Alexander Djiku, and Tariq Lamptey.

The rest were Jonas Adjetey, Jerome Opoku, and Ibrahim Osman, who all pulled out due to injury.

Joseph Paintsil was the only player to have withdrawn because of personal reasons.

Meanwhile, six players including Osman Bukari, Ransford Yeboah Koningsdorffer, Forson Amankwah, Terry Yegbe, Ebenezer Annan, and Kingsley Schindler, have been called to replace the eight.

The Black Stars take on Angola this Friday before hosting Niger at the Accra Sports Stadium three days later on Monday, November 18, 2024.

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