Franck Etouga Mbella has been ruled out of Asante Kotoko’s CAF Champions League preliminary clash against Rail Club de Kadiogo of Burkina Faso on September 12th in Cotonou.
The Cameroonian is not in a healthy condition and was not part of the travelling squad that left Ghana for Benin on Thursday morning.
As a rookie , Etouga racked up 21 goals last season to help the Porupine Warriors win the Ghana Premier League. Only Ashantigold’s Yaw Annor did better than him with his 22 strikes to clinch the Goal King Gong.
Therefore for Kotoko to contest the Kadiogo game without their best attacker is a massive blow.
Kotoko scored 48 goals in 34 games to win the league title – Etouga Mbella accounted for 21 of them representing approximately 44 percentage.
Whilst Kotoko are not necessarily short of options in attack , none of the strikers available has the same finishing qualities as the lethal Etouga.
New signings Steven Mukwala and Nicolas Mensah join the likes of Georges Mfegue , Isaac Oppong , Solomon Sarfo – Taylor , Samuel Boateng and Dickson Afoawka.
Kotoko has failed to reach the group stages of the Champions League since 2006. This fact underlines how important this Africa campaign is for the club and losing the 21-goal striker for the Kadiogo clash is certainly not ideal.
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