Leicester manager Nigel Pearson blames Ghana FA for excluding Jeffrey Schlupp from AFCON squad

Leicester City manager Nigel Pearson says his side had no hand in Jeffrey Schlupp’s withdrawal from Ghana’s Africa Cup of Nations duty after he played in the 1-0 defeat to Stoke on Saturday.

Schlupp, who was named in Avram Grant’s provisional 26-man squad, pulled out of Ghana's squad with a knee injury.

The 22-year-old suffered the setback when played and scored for Leicester in their 2-2 draw with Liverpool on New Year’s Day.

Schlupp’s appearance for Leicester on the day the tournament kicked off in Equatorial Guinea has come as a surprise.

But Pearson feels there is no need to justify that.

"We said he would be out for 10 days to two weeks and that's the case. I don't see how it (him playing) is a surprise. I didn't pull him out of anything,” he said.

"He had scans here and was advised not to fly because of the swelling and then he went down to London to have an independent medical that was organized by the Ghanaian FA, and they came to the same conclusion as we did.

"They decided not to include him in their squad. If they've any problems then they need to look at their own administrators. It's nothing to do with me.

"What the Ghanaian FA decide to do in terms of making statements, how their administrators operate or comments the managers want to make, is entirely up to them, but quite frankly I couldn't care less about that."

Schlupp has made 18 league appearances for the Foxes and scored three goals.