{"id":17826,"date":"2014-05-12T16:31:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-12T16:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=17826"},"modified":"2014-05-12T16:39:25","modified_gmt":"2014-05-12T16:39:25","slug":"lack-of-fitness-robbed-mensah-of-world-cup-place-kwesi-appiah","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/lack-of-fitness-robbed-mensah-of-world-cup-place-kwesi-appiah\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Lack of fitness robbed Mensah of World Cup place&#8221;- Kwesi Appiah"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah says fitness challenges are why John Mensah was excluded from the 26-man squad named for the pre-World Cup training camp.<\/p>\n<p>Mensah, who is the team\u2019s general captain, had been struggling with injuries for some time now and even though he signed for Slovakian side Nitra in January, Mensah could not get over his injuries to make the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; You know, John was injured for some time but we were happy for him when he joined his new team. We were hoping that he would be fit for the rest of the season so he could make the World Cup team.<\/p>\n<p>His last game for Nitra was six weeks ago and he got eleven minutes then and has not played since. Unfortunately, we could not select him for the World Cup.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Appiah expressed his disappointment at the absence of a player he admired and revealed that the rest of the team had wished to have him around.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; Nobody loves John more than I do but it is unfortunate he had to miss out. We are looking for fully-fit players who can deliver for us. John is a good player but he missed the list. We really wanted to have him with us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mensah played in Ghana&#8217;s last World Cup campaign in 2010 and led the team to a quarter-final place for the first time in the nation&#8217;s history.<\/p>\n<p>His defensive partner from that World Cup, Isaac Vorsah also missed the squad on the back of his very recent recovery from a knee injury earlier in the season.<\/p>\n<p>By: Nathan Quao\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black Stars coach Kwesi Appiah says fitness challenges are why John Mensah was excluded from the 26-man squad named for the pre-World Cup training camp. Mensah, who is the team\u2019s general captain, had been struggling with injuries for some time now and even though he signed for Slovakian side Nitra in January, Mensah could not [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":18053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[29,3],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Lack of fitness robbed Mensah of World Cup place&quot;- Kwesi Appiah - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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Mensah, who is the team\u2019s general captain, had been struggling with injuries for some time now and even though he signed for Slovakian side Nitra in January, Mensah could not [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/05\/lack-of-fitness-robbed-mensah-of-world-cup-place-kwesi-appiah\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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