Kudus an injury doubt for Ghana opener at AFCON
Ghana is sweating on the fitness of West Ham United attacker Mohammed Kudus ahead of its Africa Cup of Nations opener with Cape Verde on Monday (AEDT).
Kudus has been in superb form since his move to England and has scored 10 goals in all competitions for the Hammers this season.
The ex-Ajax forward arrived for international duty with a minor hamstring injury and manager Chris Hughton admitted he may sit out this weekend’s Group B clash with Cape Verde.
“Mohammed Kudus was the only player who joined us a little bit later because of an injury he sustained, but he is with us now,” Hughton said.
“We will assess him. We know we have the game tomorrow and we will assess him. With regards to tomorrow, everyone else is fit and well.
“I would have to say most of our preparation has been about how we want to play.
“We have to be aware of Cape Verde’s quality and the threats they have because they are a good team, with very good players but the higher percentage of the work we’ve done is about our style of play and how we want to go about our way of playing.”
Ghana has won the tournament on four occasions, but has not tasted success since 1982 and exited in the group stage in 2021.
Andre Ayew is preparing to play in his eighth AFCON and after helping the Black Stars reach two finals is dreaming of going one step further.
Former Swansea City attacker Ayew added: “It’s a huge tournament for us as a team. The last tournament was very difficult but being in a lot of tournaments, there were a lot of things that happened for the tournament to go that way.
“We need to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“It is my eighth AFCON and I’ve been sitting here for a few years for a few times now, but the ambition doesn’t change. Since I started in 2008, I have always had the ambition to make sure we bring the trophy home one day.”
