Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. The Warriors training camp ahead of two Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers later this month started on a low note with Highlanders goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda the lone figure at the squad hotel.
The Warriors technical team initially named a 38-man provisional squad for the matches against Botswana and Zambia but several key players won’t make it due to injury or travel restrictions occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Warriors manager Wellington Mpandare has however not lost hope of securing the release of some of the European-based stars. He said:
We keep our fingers crossed and continue to have high hopes that those England-based players and Munetsi will be released for the qualifiers.
We got into camp yesterday, and only Ariel Sibanda has joined camp and we expect more players to start trooping into the camp next Sunday.
We are confident of all the players coming in next Sunday as we have already sent in their air tickets to travel to Zimbabwe for the two fixtures.
We have three more players on standby, these are Kelvin Madzongwe, Ralph Kawondera and Qadar Amini.
If you are to include these players and those we have added in the past weeks we still remain with 25 players to do duty for the country.
Khama Billiat, Prince Dube and England-based Marvelous Nakamba and Tendayi Darikwa are some of the key players who will miss the two games.
