Ghana head coach Chris Hughton says it was only a good decision to allow Gideon Mensah to leave the Black Stars camp as they didn’t want to risk the player despite his desire to play.
According to the 64-year-old, the left-back was keen on featuring for the national team against Madagascar in their penultimate Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Mensah was a regular figure for the French outfit as they battled regulation in the latter part of the season, which Hughton believes was the reason for his injury.
However, the coach said that his club handled the injury effectively and that Mensah was motivated to join his colleagues for the qualifier.
“His club had been managing an injury that he has but this is someone that has been playing in all the games. And maybe some of that is because his team were obviously in a very difficult position,” Hughton told the press.
“Sometimes you get the feel from a player, a player who is maybe not so confident in coming [to the national team] or a player who wants to come. Gideon wanted to be here and that is a good sign.
“This is somebody that wanted to be here in camp so it was our responsibility to assess him with the medical information and come to a conclusion. The conclusion is that probably at this stage we didn’t want to risk him.”
