Black Princesses need more time to prepare ahead of World Cup qualifiers - Yusif Basigi

Ghana's women national U-20 team coach Yusif Basigi says the postponement of the FIFA U-20 Women's qualifiers by CAF will give his team the ample time to prepare ahead of the qualifiers.

The qualifiers were scheduled to come off in September, but the continent's football body CAF released a statement to postpone the qualifiers due to border restrictions by countries.

"Following the continuous concern on the COVID-19 virus and the lockdown in most countries on the continent, CAF Emergency Committee has decided to postpone the following matches until further notice," the statement read.

"Fifa Women U-17 World Cup Qualifiers: Initially scheduled from 1-3 May and 15-17 May 2020. CAF shall announce the new program in due time.

"We would like to assure you that CAF is monitoring the situation closely and working with competent authorities such as the WHO on the impact of the virus on the continent and CAF competitions."

Yusif Basigi says the long break due to the COVID-19 has affected the players as most of them have gained weight.

He also explained that they will need more time to prepare in order to hit top form before facing their West Africa rivals.

"We started training on Monday with individual training, just as we are doing right now and response to training is not too bad", he told Ghanafa.org.

"We started on a lower pace so we will be climbing slowly. I think the postponement has been a blessing in disguise for us and because of that, we will not rush the team into physical conditioning.

"We will be doing that till the end of this week before we go into individual ball game. The players will be doing strength and power as well, so that they can rest the next day because we are going to work on the lower and upper extremities and as a result of that, they need about 24 hours rest before we do recovery.

"The long stay in the house has affected the players and that’s why we are taking our time to reduce their weight but it should be on a slower pace".

Ghana will take on Nigeria in the last round of the qualifiers.