The Black Meteors hit the ground running with a training session on Tuesday evening at their training base in Cairo, Egypt.

With Ghana’s opening match scheduled to kick off at 10:00pm local time, Tuesday’s training session began at 6:00pm under low temperature conditions.

All players were involved in Tuesday’s session with Holland based Issah Abass expected to arrive in camp on Wednesday morning.

Coach Ibrahim Tanko expressed satisfaction at the level of commitment the players put into Tuesday’s session and was optimistic that his charges will be ready when the tournament begins.

“With what I have seen this evening I am very confident that the team would be 100% ready for Friday’s opening match against Cameroon and subsequent matches. The players are ready to deliver and are really committed to make the nation proud.  ”, the head coach stated.

US-based Ropapa Mensah has been replaced with Utrecht forward Issah Abass after suffering an injury in a match for his club side.

“We were expecting Ropapa to join the squad but we were advised by his club side that he had suffered an injury which would require that he sits out for some time before he can return to full action, thus we had to replace him in the squad”.

“We are glad that Utrecht finally accepted to release Abass  for the tournament “, the 42 year old trainer said.

On the weather conditions and the likely effects it would have on his side, Coach Tanko insists that the weather would rather be an advantage for his players most of whom are based in Europe.

“Most of our players are used to this kind of weather so it would be an advantage for us to play in this kind of weather besides our opponents would also play under the same weather conditions.”

After Friday’s opening match, the Black Meteors will take on tournament hosts Egypt before playing Mali in their last group match.

The winner and the runner ups from the competition will represent Africa at the 2020 Olympic Games to be staged in Tokyo, Japan.