Kwesi Appiah surprisingly excluded 19-goals striker Richmond Boakye Yiadom from his first call-ups on his return as Ghana coach.

Appiah named a 30-man squad last Thursday without the on-loan Red Star Belgrade who is on a purple patch of scoring form.

Boakye moved to Serbia in February from relegated Serie B side Latina and the former Juventus player regained his best form.

He managed to score 16 goals (12 in the league) in all competitions for Red Star who missed out on the league and FA Cup to rivals Partizan Belgrade.

Boakye had scored three goals for Latina in the first half of the season.

The 24-year-old was a member of Kwesi Appiah’s 23-man squad for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations finals but could not make his debut due to injury.

Ghana are billed to face Ethiopia on 11 June at home in a 2019 AFCON qualifier before playing international friendlies against Mexico on 28 June in Houston and the USA on 01 July in Connecticut.