Felix Afena-Gyan's uncle, Abrefa Gyan, has explained the player’s decision to reject Black Meteors call up last month.
The Cremonese forward was part of the eight foreign players that were invited for the games against Algeria in the CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] qualifiers.
Following Ghana's qualification for the tournament that will be hosted in Morocco later this year, Ibrahim Tanko revealed that Afena-Gyan was invited for the doubleheader but the management of the player informed him the 20-year-old is not ready for the games.
However, several reports suggested that the player’s refusal to honour the call-up was due to his omission from the 2022 World Cup squad, which Abrefa Gyan has now confirmed to be partly true.
But Afena-Gyan’s uncle has revealed that the player was not in the right state of mind after being sidelined, having already sacrificed for Ghana in the World Cup playoffs against Nigeria.
“I would beg the media to be patient with the boy. I would urge them to look into what the authorities said to persuade the boy to play for the Black Stars,” said Abrefa Gyan in an interview with Kumasi-based Pure FM.
“We’ve all heard how difficult it was for the FA to approach Afena-Gyan and persuade him. We also know Mourinho’s intention to shape the boy and why he wasn’t ready to play for the national team at the time, but the authorities did everything they could to entice him into the team.
“And, as everyone can attest, his performance was excellent [against Nigeria].
“However, if you are a coach who isn’t good at dealing with issues in the locker room, the team will always have issues.
“Even if you wouldn’t give him an invite, you should go and explain things to him to psyche him up based on whatever you promised him to convince him. Assuring him of future call-ups, for example. Meeting his parents and agent to speak with him would be more beneficial than simply selecting your players and ignoring him, giving the impression that he can choose to play or not, and you don’t care,” he lamented.
Meanwhile, Afena-Gyan was unused in Cremonese's 3-1 home defeat to Atalanta on Saturday at the Giovanni Zini Stadium.