Uganda Cranes opponents in group D of the 2017 Africa Nations Cup, Ghana began preparations on Wednesday.
A group of 22 players were present at the Aquinas School Park and they trained under the watchful eye of head coach Avram Grant who ironically didn’t take part in training but just observed.
Despite so, the Spokesperson of the Ghana Football Federation, Sannie Daara remained adamant the training was not official revealing the official one will only start when the team is announced.
“The most important thing is that this is not an official training,” he told the media after the session that had Jamie Lawrence, the physical trainer take them through the drills.
“As you know, our official training starts when the teams are supposed to release players to the national team and that according to the law are 14 days from the day of the tournament.”
Tasked to explain what the players were doing at the training ground, Daara said that the players on Christmas holiday wanted to be kept in shape.
What we have done here is to bring some players who asked to be kept in shape for the technical team to observe. As you have seen, the coach himself wasn’t involved in training since it wasn’t official but trainer Jamie Lawrence. The players are in Christmas holidays and 2-3 days can help them put up some few pounds.
He went further to reveal that as per the arrangement, the GFA will announce the squad for Gabon 2017 tournament on December 31 but insisted the players invited know.
At the appropriate time, we shall give you the list. Those invited know and everyone who has reported here was invited but let time roll, we shall officially let you know. The press conference for the announcement of the squad will be on December 31 but I am already hearing that there is potential those dates may go back a little bit.
According to the program released by the GFA a couple of days ago, the team will hold a 12-day training session in UAE and fly to Gabon on January 14.
The four-time champions start their campaign against Uganda on January 17, face Mali on January 21 and conclude their group stage fixtures with a tie against seven time champions Egypt.
