Ghana coach Baba Nuhu is excited to have received the green light to commence training with his team ahead of the 2021 Women’s U17 World Cup qualifying encounter with Nigeria.

The Black Maidens were forced to break camp in March owing to a national ban on all sports as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the final round exchange against their arch-rivals also getting rescheduled.

On Sunday, Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo announced the team is permitted to regroup under a special dispensation, as are the women’s U20 team and the men’s U17 outfit.

“I am so happy and glad that the President has given us the green light to start camping towards our last hurdle,” Nuhu said, as reported by the GFA’s official website on Monday.

“I gave out several exercises during the restriction period to all the players who were in camp before the break.

“My technical team and I did this in bid to keep them active. I am glad that now we can group together as a team to fine-tune our preparations.”

Ghana will welcome Nigeria for the first leg in Cape Coast and travel away for the return fixture.

The winners over two legs book a place at the final tournament in India.

“On behalf of my teammates, we are very happy and excited that after Fifa and Caf had given the go-ahead to resume the qualifiers, today the President has also given us the green light to begin camping,” Black Maidens captain Basira Alhassan remarked.

“The entire team is very happy about our coming back to the field. I believe together we will be able to put the team in a very good shape ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria.”

The World Cup, which was originally planned for November this year, has been moved to February-March 2021 owing to concerns over the coronavirus outbreak. 

Ghana’s best performance in six past appearances at the global showpiece is a third-placed finish at the expense of Germany at Azerbaijan in 2012, having played at each of the past editions of the tournaments held thus far.

Ghana were due to take on Nigeria earlier in May but the games had to be moved to a new date over health concerns.