AfricaPress-Tanzania: AZAM have suffered another blow in their quest for the Premier League title this season as their top striker Prince Dube has reportedly been ruled out of action for six weeks due to injury.
The Zimbabwean ‘hitman’ picked up the injury during their 1-0 home defeat to Young Africans which forced him to be substituted midway into the first half before he travelled to South Africa for further checkups.
Commenting on this development, the club’s Information Officer Thabit Zakaria said they will be able to make thorough assessment of the striker after the stipulated six weeks.
Dube, who started the league on acceleration pedal, has six goals to his name and he dominated the top scorers chart for sometimes before surrendering it recently to Simba striker, John Bocco.
In another development, Zakaria remains hopeful that Azam still have an opportunity to claim the league title despite their recent drop in overall performance which rendered them to a 1-1 draw against Biashara United on Monday.
“There are many games to be played before one can start predicting of which side is capable to win the championship. We have just played 13 matches and the whole season has got 34 games hence all is not lost to our side as far as battling for the title is concerned,” he said.
He also gave kudos to the caretaker coach Bahati Vivier for the one point he got from the tricky away fixture saying Azam have always been deprived maximum points while playing at Karume Stadium in Musoma.
“It was a good result for him against a perfect side which played well throughout the normal period of the game. One point is very essential to us even though a win was our priority,” he said.
Again, Zakaria named Salum Abubakar ‘Sureboy’ as another player they want to assess his fitness in the upcoming matches as he also failed to complete the Biashara United game due to injury.
On his part, Biashara United coach Francis Baraza labelled fatigue as the main setback which prevented them from collecting all three points on the day.
“Let me applaud my players for giving it all during the match and we had at least five clear chances which could have been converted to goals only if they were sharp at making final attempts,” he said.
Also, the coach seized the chance to clarify that they face transport problems as they are compelled to use a small vehicle which is not comfortable for the players to make long journeys hence requested well-wishers to help them acquire better transport.
