The national under-17 coach Tom Olaba says the last minute cancellation of a regional youth tournament does not affect the team's morale.

Olaba said yesterday they are looking upto playing Ghana in December in an Africa Youth Cup match.

"Our focus was to play Ghana in December and we are not discouraged by the cancellation of the cecafa regional tournament," he said.

Olaba was speaking at the Moi International Sports Centre (MISC) Kasarani yesterday where the team is training. It was business as usual for the side which held a morning training session.

He said his aim is to keep the players together for at least two weeks with the hope of playing friendly matches against Tanzania and Uganda after which they will disband until October for the match against Ghana.

Eritrea on Monday backed out of hosting the under-19 regional tournament which the Kenyan side were prepararing to take part in.

The tournament failed to get standby host even though Sudan and Zanzibar had shown willingness to play hosts but dates suggested were not acceptable to all members countries.

The tournament will now be held next year but the venue is yet to be named. Five players have been dropped from the Kenyan youth team ahead of their match against Ghana.

They are: Paul Mwania, Aziz Boniface, Keegan Ngugi,Ben Mulee and Salim Abdalla.