Bosso sweat over Diya fitness

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS have included an injured Munyaradzi Diya in their final travelling squad for today’s Mbada Diamonds Cup semi-final clash with tricky Harare City at Mandava Stadium.
The shot-stopper suffered a minor wrist fracture during the 1-1 draw with Motor Action in a league match last weekend.
“He never showed any signs of discomfort until during training this week,” said a club source.

Diya is said to have removed an arm sling during training on Thursday afternoon against the advice of the club’s medical staff.
“He never punched the ball with his right hand and we suspect he wanted to force his way into the team and the coach fell for it. He is part of the travelling squad today (yesterday),” said the source.

A saviour of the team on many occasions this season since taking over the number one jersey from the 2012 Goalkeeper of the Year Ariel Sibanda, Diya is likely to be on the bench.

“We have seen it before that some of our injured guys pretend to be alright so that they are included in the team only to aggravate the injury during warm up or after a few minutes like what happened with Beavan Chikaka at Motor Action last weekend,” said the source.
Chikaka told the coaching staff that his ankle injury had healed, but as the teams warmed up he was forced to pull out after telling team medics that the pain was now unbearable.

Head coach Kelvin Kaindu confirmed that his star man was carrying an injury.
“He is injured, so is young Gabriel Nyoni although he (Nyoni) has been training,” said Kaindu, who returned from a six-day Uefa B licence course in England on Tuesday.

With Diya likely to start on the bench, Sibanda could start his first game in months as Highlanders search for their first silverware since winning the 2011 Independence Cup final at the expense of Dynamos.

Kaindu added: “Morale is high and we are all looking forward to the match.”
Despite all the good work that he has done at the club, Kaindu still faces a possibility of ending the season empty handed again for the second year running.

He declined to discuss the possibility but instead chose to be optimistic.
“I don’t think we should look at the negative possibility, we are not there yet. Let’s look at the positive possibility like us doing well which we still believe we will.”

Highlanders are still in the hunt for a league and cup double although their league title fate is no longer in their hands as they trail Dynamos and Harare City by a point with three matches to play.

Harare City have been the season’s surprise packages under Bigboy Mawiwi, a firm favourite for the Coach of the Year award after turning an average pool of players into championship contenders.

In another semi-final match, gold miners How Mine are in the capital to face Caps United at the giant National Sports Stadium tomorrow afternoon.

The dream of an all-southern region final is still very much alive.
The winners of the tournament will take home a cool $130 000 in prize money  and $110 000 subsidy for their Caf competition participation.
Losing finalists will walk away with $90 000 for their effort, which is more than what the league championship winners will be rewarded with.

Gate charges for the two matches at Mandava and the National Sports Stadium will remain $1 for the rest of the ground.
The venue for the final will be decided after tomorrow’s match in Harare.