Pretoria - Portsmouth and Ghana midfielder, Kevin-Prince Boateng, has been withdrawn from the Black Stars squad ahead of their friendly against Bafana Bafana at Soccer City tonight.
Boateng was withdrawn so that he could sort out issues pertaining to his future in his Portsmouth team.
Despite the loss, Ghana head coach, Milovan Rajevac said he would use today's friendly match against Bafana Bafana to measure and build on the team's impressive performance displayed during the FIFA World Cup.
Ghana will clash with the World Cup host nation at Soccer City, the same venue where the Black Stars crashed out of the World Cup quarter-finals on penalty shoot-out to Uruguay.
"We want to build on our World Cup performances and today's match against Bafana will give us a good indication of where we stand at the moment. We will be involved in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers soon, so it is important that we get our combinations right against South Africa," he said.
Rajevac said their fixture against Bafana would present the Black Stars with the opposition needed to assess his team.
"The players showed what they were capable of during the World Cup and it is important that we keep on improving. Bafana were also impressive during the World Cup and we will have to be at our best if we are to beat them," he said.
Despite missing some key players to his squad, Rajevac has a strong 17-man squad which includes two debutants Cofie Bekoe and Bright Addae.
Today's clash is crucial for both teams as they will be using it as a preparatory match for the Africa Nations Cup (AFCON) qualifiers next month.
The Black Stars will play their AFCON qualifier next month against weak opponents, Swaziland, while Bafana will play against unpredicted Niger at Mbombela stadium on 5 September.
South African Football Association (Safa) communications manager Morio Sanyane said they were expecting a good game against Ghana, but for Bafana new coach Pitso Mosimane it will be a baptism of fire.
Mosimane has retained most of the players on the team for tonight, who represented the country during the World Cup.
