The ministry of youth and sports confirmed on Monday that Gambia’s Under-20 coach, Lorenzo Rubbinacci, quit his job months ago in order to return to Italy and look after his sick mother.

The news comes less than two weeks before the Gambia faces Ghana in a crucial continental fixture in Accra.

No replacement has as yet been proposed for Rubbinacci.

Speaking for the first time on the issue Permanent Secretary Mam Mbanyick Njie told West Coast Radio’s Sportsfile programme: “Rubbinacci tendered his resignation in July citing serious health problems with his mother which necessitated his urgent return home on a permanent basis.”

Njie said the Gambia Football Association was immediately informed and it was up to it to find Rubbinacci’s replacement.

“If [the GFA] come up with a candidate they believe can do the job we will work together with them to hire the person.”

Rubbinacci was appointed in April this year to succeed Gambian Peter Bonu Johnson who guided the Under-20s to a bronze-place finish at the 2007 African Youth Championship and to the second round of the FIFA World Cup in the same year.

Under Rubbinaccis’s tutelage the Gambia started strongly in the qualifiers for the next year’s African Youth Championship in Rwanda.

They beat Mauritania 4-1 on aggregate to go through to the final round of qualifying where they meet the Black Satellites of Ghana who defeated Angola.

The Ghanaians host the first leg on September 28 with the reverse fixture in Banjul two weeks later.

Meanwhile the Black Satellites are in camp preparing towards the game