Head coach for the Black Maidens of Ghana, Baba Nuhu has emphasized that his girls will need extra time to build their rhythm when football finally returns after the Coronavirus (Covid-19) break.
Coach Baba Nuhu and his charges were preparing for the FIFA U-17 World Cup before the Covid-19 crisis rocked the continent forcing CAF to suspend all international assignments.
According to the gaffer, the team cohesion in his team has been affected after staying at home for the past 3 months and they will need more time to prepare to get that back.
“COVID-19 has affected women's football, especially the U-17 team which I'm handling. My technical team and I were able to prepare the team to a certain level. The preparation is in stages and we got to the competition stage where we eliminated Liberia by beating them home and away.
“We were preparing for the game against Nigeria which was the last hurdle to clear before qualifying for the World Cup and this pandemic came in. Everything has its positive and negative effect.
“The negative effect is that now the players are on break. Female players are not like their male counterparts where you can use a few days to prepare for a competition. For example, if you take a day to prepare a male player for a competition, it will take a week to prepare a female player for the same competition and so now that we are home when asked to come together today, the preparation will be different”, Coach Baba Nuhu told the communications team of the Ghana FA in an interview.
The Black Maidens remain confident of securing qualification to the next FIFA U-17 World Cup and will resume campaign as soon as the government gives the green light for football activities to resume.