Mohammed Kudus has decided to withdraw his name from the Ghana squad and stay back at Tottenham.
Tottenham Hotspur entered the international break with a 3-2 home defeat to Aston Villa. The loss, coupled with Fulham’s draw with Manchester United, has left Roberto De Zerbi’s side rock bottom in the Premier League table.
Spurs’ injury list also grew at the weekend. Pedro Porro, who had already missed the Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool due to a minor muscle injury, lasted only 19 minutes against Aston Villa before being substituted for youngster Archie Gray. The full-back has subsequently withdrawn from the Spanish national team squad for the games in the international break.
At the start of the week, respected journalist Alasdair Gold revealed that Dominic Solanke was limping after the Villa game. Now, an update has been delivered on why Mohammed Kudus withdrew his name from the Ghana national squad.
Ghana boss explains reason behind Mohammed Kudus’ withdrawal from international duty
Mohammed Kudus endured an injury-hit debut campaign at Tottenham following his move from West Ham in 2025. He suffered a serious quad injury in January, ending his campaign prematurely.
Having been left out of Ghana’s World Cup squad, Roberto De Zerbi hoped the creative midfielder would have the luxury of a full pre-season to regain sharpness ahead of the new campaign. However, his minutes were limited, with the club’s medical department cautious to avoid a relapse of the setback he sustained in training in April.
After a couple of cameo appearances off the bench, Kudus made his first competitive start in eight months as Tottenham were beaten 3-1 by Liverpool in the Carabao Cup third round last week. Despite bagging an assist for Conor Gallagher’s goal in the defeat to Villa, the Ghana star looked well off the pace and rhythm.
Kudus had initially been included in Carlos Queiroz’s 24-man squad after returning to action for Spurs following seven months out, but will remain with his club as Ghana begin their Group C campaign in Bouake against Ivory Coast. Now, Carlos Queiroz has explained the reasoning behind the playmaker’s decision to withdraw from the Black Stars’ squad for this 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying window.
“It is simple for you guys to understand: over the course of our decision, we have the club games,” Queiroz said (h/t Football London).
“As national team coach, we can’t control the decisions of the other coaches. In our observations and conversations, it looked like Kudus was moving in the right direction.
“I had to make the decision on Wednesday or Thursday with the matches that I was able to scout and make the right observations but later on, other information about the status of the player after he played 70 something minutes, unfortunately, the news was that they were not progressing in the direction that we expect.
“In my final conversation with Kudus, we realised that the best decision was to protect his progress and recovery process and keep the hope that in this period with more training and more games in the legs, in the next round, Kudus will be ready to be with us.
“In this moment for him, the most sensitive situation is that he can’t take the risk to have a setback like he had before. Nobody wants to take that risk.
“We have decisions with the information that we have in the end; when they come, I made the decision to release him because he was not ready to come.”
Good decision taken by Kudus
Kudus recovered during the summer and has already featured for Spurs this season. He played 198 minutes in five matches and is yet to start in the league under De Zerbi.
The Ghanaian has taken the right decision to focus on completing his recovery at Hotspur and regaining his best physical condition and form before representing his country again. De Zerbi and the North Londoners can benefit from the player’s decision to stay back in England. He can utilise the extended international break to work on his recovery and help Tottenham get back on track in the Premier League.
