NAIROBI, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- Injured Beijing Renhe winger Ayub Timbe has been omitted from Kenya's team, which will play Ghana on March 22 away in Accra for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier.
Timbe, who plays in the Chinese capital, is currently nursing a knee injury and went under the knife late last year and is expected to return to action in April and contest inclusion in the national team ahead of the AFCON Finals, which will be staged in Egypt in June.
Kenya's head coach Sebastien Migne instead has opted to give debutants David Sessay and Christopher Mbamba, who play in England and Sweden respectively, their first call to national duty.
Duke Abuya and Faruk Shikalo have also got the coach's nod. The coach has named 14 stars, who play in foreign leagues.
"I have named an additional five reserve players as a precautionary measure, who may be called upon to replace any of the 24 players in camp if need be," Migne said in Nairobi on Thursday.
Mbamba, who plays in the Sweden third tier for Oskarshamn, was born in Zimbabwe to a Kenyan mother and Zimbabwean father and is eligible to play for any of the three nations.
Both Kenya and Ghana will be playing for pride after they sealed their tickets to the African Cup of Nations finals in Egypt with a match to spare.
"We need to test our players in this dead rubber match to know how good they are and if they warrant being named in the team to the finals," said the coach.
The Africa Cup of Nations will for the first time have 24 teams up from 16 and will run from June 21 to July 19 in Egypt, who replaced Cameroon as the hosts.
