Lamptey goes from year out injured to World Cup debut with Ghana

Ghana losing to Portugal was probably not the World Cup debut that Tariq Lamptey was hoping for. Yet for Lamptey to even be in Qatar is a success in itself after the injury problems he has suffered.

It looked like the right back had the world at his feet in his first six months as a Brighton player. Between his Albion debut at Leicester City in June 2020 and the trip to Fulham in December, many Premier League opponents who had the misfortune to play on the left were torn to pieces by Lamptey.

His combination of explosive pace and ability to ghost past players made him almost unstoppable. But then the sort of hamstring problem that seems to plague young players with relentless speed reared its head and Lamptey was ruled out for almost a calendar year.

Since returning to fitness, he has struggled to regain his spot in the Brighton starting XI. Joel Veltman, Solly March and more recently Pascal Gross have all been preferred at right back or right wing back.

Lamptey’s route to international football looked even more congested. He is extremely unfortunate to be playing at a time when England have a ridiculous pool of world class right backs.

Reece James, Kyle Walker, Kieran Trippier and Trent Alexander-Arnold were all ahead of Lamptey in the pecking order, not to mention his former Albion teammate Ben White who has spent this season playing at right back for Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Lamptey subsequently switched allegiance to Ghana, who he qualifies through via his father. Ex-Albion boss Chris Hughton was instrumental in the change, having been appointed as the Black Stars technical advisor shortly before opening talks with Lamptey.

And so with 66 minutes of their opening game of Qatar 2022 against Portugal elapsed, Lamptey entered the fray for Ghana.

Some bloke called Cristiano Ronaldo had just made history as the first player to score at five World Cups, converting a penalty he won after going down in the box very easily under a challenge from Southampton defender Mohammed Salisu.

Ghana were much improved as an attacking force with Lamptey a lively presence down the right. Like Kaoru Mitoma a day earlier when Japan beat Germany, he ended the game as the highest scoring player on his team in the BBC Player Ratings, achieving a 7.62 for his half hour work.

Before Lamptey was introdcued, Ghana had barely mustered a chance. With him on the pitch, they equalised through Andre Ayew on 73 minutes.

Portugal responded by scoring twice in 120 seconds to move 3-1 ahead. Joao Felix clipped home followed by a cool finish from Rafael Leao.

If Ronaldo and co thought that was game over, then they were (nearly) in for a bit of a shock. Osman Bukhari headed in on 89 minutes to make it Portugal 3-2 Ghana.

In the final seconds, we then came close to a Sneaky George Parris moment on the biggest stage of them all. Portugal goalkeeper Diogo Costa dropped the ball unaware that Inaki Williams was still behind him.

Williams channelled his inner Parris and stole the ball from Costa, only to slip as he went to shoot. That allowed Portugal to clear off the line in a very lucky escape.

With South Korea and Uruguay the other teams in Group H drawing, Ghana still retain a chance of reaching the round of 16.

Lamptey has done everything he can in terms of playing himself into contention for a starting spot against South Korea on Monday.

If he does play, it will be another step in a remarkable return from a year out. What a man.