Ghana assistant coach Maxwell Konadu has denied reports that Inter Milan midfielder Kwadwo Asamoah faked his injury ahead of the Black Stars fixture against Ethiopia in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying because of an alleged feud with the Ayew brothers.
On Monday, the 29-year-old was officially ruled out of the November 18 game following an ankle injury sustained while in action for Inter in Serie A.
However, a section of Ghanaians have argued that he decided not to honour the invitation due to widespread allegations of bad blood between him and the Ayew brothers, who are returning to the team after one year away.
“It’s never true that Kwadwo Asamoah faked his injury. He didn’t also pull out of the game against Ethiopia because the Ayew brothers are returning to the team. In fact, there’s no problem between those players,” Konadu told Otec FM.
“The invitations ahead of this game were sent to players and their respective clubs a fortnight ago so Asamoah was aware that Ayew brothers are returning. If indeed he doesn’t want to play with them, why didn’t he reject the call-up at that time? I don’t think those reports are accurate.
“Asamoah is indeed injured and he has spoken to us about it so we cannot relate it to any feud with another player. I have to respect his privacy or else I would’ve given out the details of his injury to the public,” he added.
Ghana will head to Nairobi in Kenya on Tuesday with 19 players for fine tuning before leaving for Addis Ababa for the game on Sunday.
Source: Goal.com