The loss of suspended captain John Mensah for Ghana's African Nations Cup semi-final on Thursday has hit the hosts hard, coach Claude Le Roy said on Monday.

The Rennes defender, who stepped in as skipper for the injured Stephen Appiah, was sent off in Sunday's 2-1 win over Nigeria for a professional foul ruling him out of Thursday's semi and the final.
"I consider John to be one of the top five defenders in the world, and to lose a player of his quality is a big blow," said Le Roy, who is gunning for his second title after Cameroon in 1988.

"I was worried when he went off about ten players against 11 if the game went to extra time and then penalties."
The Frenchman, who celebrates his 60th birthday on Wednesday, added: "We were 23 players, now we're down to 22. I'm not going to give any information away to the coaches of Tunisia or Angola, that's not my job, so I won't tell you how I'm going to organise the team. But don't worry, we'll be ready for Thursday.

"Anyway I think we've got 23 captains in the squad - 24 counting Stephen who is with us."
Portsmouth striker Sulley Muntari, who has been in tremendous form since the start of the competition, reflected: "When John went off we all came together, we wanted to make him proud by winning for him.
"We're united as a group, there's not one leader, we're all leaders."
Ghana showed real backbone to overcome the loss of their captain and go on to beat the Nigerians with Junior Agogo producing the winning goal seven minutes from time.
Le Roy praised the Nottingham Forest striker who has proved a potent threat to the defences of Guinea, Namibia, Morocco and on Sunday the Super Eagles.

"When I first came across Junior two years ago I was impressed by his potential. The problem was at the beginning he didn't like to train too much, and to arrive at the top you have to train.
"But he's improved so much in two years - tactically, the way he works on the pitch. He wants this position in attack, but it's not easy, I've a lot of strikers who could be in the first XI, but he gives us a lot."
A major feature of Sunday's game was the contribution of the 45,000 fans at the Ohene Djan stadium.
The Ghana coach relfected: "Our job is to make the fans happy, and we can do that by winning. All the messages we're getting say 'wer'e so proud of you' - we want too keep that going. The only advice I would give them is don't drink too much!
"The fans give us a huge advantage, they were always behind us yesterday. I was told at half time there was a fantastic atmosphere, they didn't stop singing and cheering for the entire 15 minutes we were in the dressing room.
"With them on our side we're difficult to beat in Accra, I don't want to leave Accra until after the final on Sunday."
Turning then to Thursday's semi against the winner of the Tunisia and Angoola quarter-final later Monday the Frenchman commented: "We've got an extra day to prepare, which is important at this stage of the competition."
He was then asked how he'd be marking his milestone birthday on Wednesday.

"Last year it fell on the day we beat Nigeria (4-1 in a friendly). This time I'll spend a few hours with my family."