Ghana coach Samuel Paa Kwasi Fabin has urged dropped players to pick inspiration from their disappointment of failing to make the final team for the upcoming Fifa Under-17 World Cup in India.
The trainer pruned down his squad to 21 last week, as required by rules of the U-17 World Cup, having picked a provisional 25-man team for a pre-tournament camp in the United Arab Emirates.
Accra Young Wise's Isaac Antah, who was part of the team at the African championship in May, is among the unlucky four, so are Rudolf Blagogee, Evans Sarfo and Emmanuel Antwi.
“The most difficult thing in my coaching career is to drop players for a competition," Fabin told Happy FM.
“I will tell them to never give up because they have been dropped from the squad who will represent the nation in India.
“They should rather draw inspirations from Samuel Inkoom who was dropped from the Starlets squad on many occasions but never gave up and eventually became an integral part of the Black Satellites team that won the African Under-20 Championship and the World Cup in 2009 and later became part of the Black Stars team.
“Their elimination from the squad should motivate them to work harder for the various age competitions like U-20 and the Olympic team.
“It’s never late for them. As under-17 players, they have a long way to go.”
As part of preparations for the upcoming tournament, Ghana locked horns with Mali in a friendly fixture last week.
The Black Starlets suffered a 2-1 defeat to the African champions but picked themselves up with a 4-0 triumph over the UAE on Saturday.
Drawn in Group A, Ghana will open their India 2017 campaign against Colombia on October 6 before facing the USA three days later.
The two-time champions will then round off their group activities against hosts India on October 12.
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