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Tadious Manyepo
Sports Reporter
NGEZI Platinum Stars defender Carlos Mavhurume will know the extent of his knee injury this week when the MRI scan results come out.
The highly-rated centre-back who can also play in the midfield suffered a nasty injury in their match-day five fixture against Manica Diamonds.
He has been struggling to train with the injury recurring each time he has tried to do so. And last week the 25-year-old had an MRI scan whose results are expected this week.
“I am in pain because I cannot do what I like the most, which is playing football,” said Mavhurume.
“I have played only six matches this season. It’s very painful to watch from the sidelines but I cannot do anything about it because I am injured.
“I had an MRI scan recently and the results are expected this week to ascertain the extent of the injury. My hope, as a player, is that all will be well because I want to be doing what I am supposed to be doing, that is playing football”.
The former Herentals and CAPS United player joined the Mhondoro team amid high expectation he would flourish given his potential two years ago.
But, after a decent season last year, he has been struggling to assert himself in coach Takesure Chiragwi’s system even before he suffered the injury.
Chiragwi’s charges are thriving with three at the back where mostly Kudzai Chigwida, Gareth Madhake and Leslie Kashitigu deploy.
Mavhurume and Polite Moyo have mostly been benched but the former’s versatility has enabled him to be thrown in midfield.
The platinum miners are second on the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League table with 27 points to their name, four points behind leaders Highlanders.
They have gone for the past two matches without posting a win after a goalless draw against Sheasham at Bata a fortnight ago and a shock 1-0 defeat to Simba Bhora at Baobab last week.
And the ambitious side will be looking at redeeming themselves when they face struggling Cranborne Bullets at Nyamhunga on Saturday.
Defender Gareth Madhake who sat out the match against Sheasham due to illness, the first game he has missed this season said Ngezi Platinum have what it takes to compete with the best but need to fine-tune marginal errors.
“If you look at it, we the players are to blame for the matches that we have failed to pick the maximum points.
“Every time we have failed to win, we would have made some errors, some of which are very unnecessary. But in terms of executing our coach’s game-plan, we are very much up there,” said Madhake.
“So it is really an easy task for us. We need to retain concentration all the time for us to be able to win matches. We have gone for two matches without posting a win and that is bad enough for a team chasing some targets.
“So we need to find ourselves, put in the work and make sure we collect the maximum points against Cranborne Bullets on Saturday.
“We have an exciting group of young and experienced players who are eager to attain the team’s goals. We have to throw in some really good punches and see what we can take from the match on Saturday. We are taking it one game at a time”.
Fixtures
Saturday
Greenfuel v Dynamos (Gibbo)
Yadah v Chicken Inn (Baobab)
Cranborne Bullets v Ngezi Platinum (Nyamhunga)
Bulawayo Chiefs v Herentals (Luveve)
CAPS United v Triangle (Bata)
Sunday
Highlanders v Manica Diamonds (B/F)
Sheasham v Black Rhinos (Bata)
Simba Bhora v ZPC Kariba (Baobab)
Hwange v FC Platinum (Colliery)
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