The coach has today trimmed the squad to 23 a couple of days after a friendly match with Lesotho that ended in a 1-1 tie.
Seid Habtamu (Wolkite Kenema), Birhanu Bekele (Hadiya Hosanna), Wondimagegn Hailu (Hawassa City), and Habtamu Tadesse (Hadiya Hosanna) are the five stars who were dropped from the provisional squad.
Wubetu and his 23 players in camp are preparing for two matches in the first round of the 2023 Cup of Nations qualifiers. All except midfielder Shimelis Bekele of Egypt’s El Gouna FC, currently play in the Ethiopian Premier League.
The Walias will play Malawi on June 5 in the southern African nation’s capital Lilongwe’s Bingu Stadium. Ethiopia will then host Egypt in the same venue four days later, on June 9.
The game against Egypt was scheduled to be played in Malawi after the Confederation of African Football (CAF) banned Bahir Dar stadium, which it said was unfit to host international matches.
Ethiopia is drawn in Group D alongside Egypt, Malawi, and Guinea to qualify for the tournament, scheduled to be played in Cote d’Ivoire in May and June 2023.
