The influential Chelsea midfielder has been ruled out of the tournament because of injury.

Ghana face Serbia on Sunday and Appiah said: "When you are talking about the Ivory Coast, you talk about (Didier) Drogba.

"When you talk about Cameroon, you talk about (Samuel) Eto'o, and when you talk about Ghana, you talk about Michael Essien.

"But in this Black Stars team, even if Michael is not there, someone has to take his position."

Appiah, who currently plays with Bologna in Italy, admitted that reaching the second round in 2006 has lifted expectations in Ghana.

"Now they want us to get the cup," he added. "Some of the players who were there took a lot of things from that tournament, and we made sure that we are going to repeat it here."