Australia, Ghana hit by late injuries
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) — Ghana could be without defenders Isaac Vorsah and John Mensah for the World Cup match today against Australia, who have lost midfielders Tim Cahill and Vince Grella.
Mensah was withdrawn midway through training yesterday reportedly because of a chronic hamstring complaint, while Vorsah’s knee ligament injury has placed his future participation at the tournament in doubt.
Mensah, Ghana’s captain, is coming off an injury-plagued season in which he missed the Africa Cup of Nations in January due to a hamstring injury.
“Vorsah has not been training for the past seven days and I think he will not be able to play,” coach Milovan Rajevic said. “We will see the situation with Mensah tomorrow.”
Ghana play Australia at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and can take control of Group D with a victory after beating Serbia 1-0 in their first game. Australia opened with a 0-4 loss to Germany, who lost 1-0 to Serbia earlier yesterday.
Cahill received a one-match suspension after being sent off against Germany, while Grella was ruled out after injuring his knee at training on Wednesday. Australia coach Pim Verbeek said all other 21 players are ready to play.
Rajevac suggested the loss of Cahill might prove to Australia’s advantage.
“Now Cahill is missing they will have to stick together more,” Rajevac said. “It’s going to be a tough, tough game. This is a huge challenge for us and we have to concentrate as well as we did in our first match.”
Few give Australia much chance against Ghana after they were destroyed down the flanks by Germany in Durban last Sunday. The nature of that loss, forged on speedy attacks against an aging defence, was noticed by the African team — yet Rajevac urged against complacency.
“In the first match, plenty of negative things happened for Australia and this doesn’t show what they can really do on the pitch,” Rajevac said. “You can look at the results of other games in the World Cup. Spain lost, Germany lost — there are no favourites.”
Verbeek has had few tougher weeks in his 2 1/2 years as Australia’s coach. He has been roundly criticised for his tactics against Germany and again had to confront rumours yesterday of internal disharmony, calling them “rubbish”
He said the players had responded well to their humbling loss.
“We have had two very good training sessions this week and the players have reacted very well,” Verbeek said. “I have 100 per cent confidence they will give everything.
“The only thing that counts tomorrow(today) is winning. I’ve seen some teams who have played attacking football and didn’t get the result.”
Goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer said the players are motivated by the Germany defeat.
“We were all bitterly disappointed by how it turned out,” he said.