JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Ghana could be without defenders Isaac Vorsah and John Mensah for the World Cup match on Saturday against Australia, which has lost midfielders Tim Cahill and Vince Grella.
Mensah was withdrawn midway through training on Friday reportedly because of a chronic hamstring complaint, while Vorsah’s knee ligament injury has placed his future participation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 plays Australia at Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and can take control of Group D with a victory after beating Serbia 1-0 in its first game. Australia opened with a 4-0 loss to Germany, which lost 1-0 to Serbia earlier Friday.
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 it was destroyed down the flanks by Germany in Durban last Sunday. The nature of that loss, forged on speedy attacks against an aging defense, 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 favorites.”
Verbeek has had few tougher weeks in his 2½ years as Australia’s coach. He has been roundly criticized for his tactics against Germany and again had to confront rumors Friday 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 percent confidence they will give everything.
“The only thing that counts tomorrow 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.
Schwarzer will come up against Fulham teammate John Pantsil, who says he has been baiting the goalkeeper by predicting he’ll score a hat trick.
Schwarzer also comes up against the controversial Jabulani ball at the ground where England goalkeeper Robert Green made his disastrous blunder against the United States.
“It has been difficult to deal with, especially at altitude, and there’s a been a sense of unpredictability at times,” Schwarzer said. “But you’ve just got to get on with it.”
