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In the 66th minute, the sturdy backliner was red carded as he fouled his Botswana opponent, Jerome Ramatlhakwane. The player was on his way to a certain goal scoring chance when Mensah, the last man, fouled him.
According to Confederation of African Football rules, Mensah will have a two-game ban. John Mensah, 29, will sit out the next two crucial games. Options for Ghana in his place are John Boye, Jonathan Mensah and Lee Addy. Should Ghana fail to make it past the group stage, Mensah’s Nations Cup campaign would be over already.
The red card is John Mensah's second in his African Cup career, having taken one for the team similarly in 2008 against Nigeria. On that occasion, Ghana won 2-1 to advance to the semi-final.
It is not clear if Ghana will appeal the decision, which appeared very right from the referee. As for John Mensah himself, he said: "I have no problem with the red card, the referee made his decision and that's football."
