adminInspirational vice-captain, Tawanda Muparati, headlines the list of players racing against time to be declared fit for Sunday afternoon’s crunch tie against CA Bizertin at the October 15 Stadium with a broken index finger.
With coach Callisto Pasuwa most likely to go for caution before glory, his defence lines might again be compromised as midfield hardman, Devon Chafa, is also carrying a groin injury which team doctor Kudzai Masunda was, however, optimistic he would heal before Sunday.
Roving leftback — Ocean Mushure — must also shake off a nagging ankle problem before he can play a role against the Tunisians.
But, with Augustine Mbara in the squad, Dynamos can easily cope with Mushure’s absence if he fails to recover in time.
The players were expected to be assessed yesterday following the long journey that lasted 19 hours.
While putting up a brave face on the prospects of the rest of the players’ availability for Sunday’ test, Masunda was, however, more concerned about Muparati, whose finger is still cast in plaster, amid suggestions DeMbare might consider putting a wooden cushion as a shield.
“As you know Tawanda has a fracture on his finger but generally all the other players must be fit to play on Sunday. Tawanda broke his finger some two weeks ago (away to Lesotho Correctional Services) and we were expecting it to heal inside two weeks.
“We will have to assess him again on Saturday to see if he is okay. We will also need to assess the rest of them to ascertain their conditions especially after this long flight,” said Masunda.
DeMbare were also concerned that the cold weather conditions could negatively impact on their players’ injuries.
“We analysed the weather conditions when we were still in Harare and we knew it is very cold here. In fact today was the coldest day and by the weekend hopefully it will be a bit fine,” he added.
Coach Pasuwa was a worried man concerned the situation could be further compounded by players’ tendencies to hide injuries in a bid to be part of the squad only for them to fall short on match day.
“My main worry is the injuries which some of the players are carrying. There are other guys who have a tendency of hiding injuries but with this kind of weather it will always come back to affect them,” said Pasuwa.
“We also have (Francesco) Zekumbawire who got a knock on the thigh muscle during training.”
While the technical team was sweating over the availability of key players, chairman Kenny Mubaiwa, reiterated the importance of the Champions League campaign.
“It is very important that we do well in this tournament, not only for our sake as Dynamos, but for the good of the Zimbabwean game.
“Dynamos is a big club and fellow clubs back home look up to us to set the standard for them and we should not be content with amassing domestic glory alone,” Mubaiwa said.
Online Reporter