admin
Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
DYNAMOS coach Herbert “Jompano”Maruwa is sweating over the fitness of some of his key players who are in a race against time to recover before the giants’ Castle Lager Premier Soccer League tie against Cranborne Bullets at the National Sports Stadium on Easter Monday.
The Harare giants have started the league brightly after posting two wins and a single draw while keeping clean sheets in their opening three games.
With seven points under their belt, DeMbare currently lead the standings, on goal difference ahead of fellow giants CAPS United and Highlanders, who both have the same number of points.
But the Glamour Boys haven’t been lucky in terms of their health bill with a number of their essential members grounded by injuries.
The pair of midfielder Donald “Kante” Mudadi and centre-back Kelvin Moyo were forced out of the team’s goalless draw against Simba Bhora last weekend after a clash of heads. Impressive winger Tendai Matindife also hobbled out of that match with a sprain while striker Nyasha Chintuli aggravated his injuries in that match following a bad encounter with thieves a few days before the Simba Bhora match.
Out of the four, only Mudadi has started light training with the rest being closely monitored by the club medical staff.
Maruwa is hoping the trio will be certified fit by the medical team in time for them to start training before the weekend and stand a chance to make the team for the Easter Monday match.
“It’s a bit tight in terms of the number of casualties which we have at the team right now. Matindife (Tendai), Kelvin (Moyo), Chintuli (Nyasha) and Donald (Mudadi) are all injured.
“Only Mudadi has started light training but the rest are still on the side lines,” said Maruwa.
“Matindife suffered a knock in that match against Simba Bhora and that was the reason we subbed him off. He was struggling to make his usual runs and we had to withdraw him. The injury looks serious.
“On the other hand, Kelvin Moyo clashed heads with Mudadi and the two had to be withdrawn from the same match due to the nature of the injuries.
“Mudadi’s cut in the head wasn’t very bad and we let him continue but unfortunately, he also aggravated after clashing with Elvis Moyo.
“Nyasha Chintuli was mugged in the week leading to the match against Simba Bhora. But, he escaped with minor injuries.
“He was still traumatised though but we decided to throw him into this match as a way of making him recover from the mental torture he had been subjected to.
“Unfortunately, he also got a knock on the same area where he had been assaulted and we had to sub him off.
“So as we speak three of the key players are on the treatment table and we are hoping they will have recovered fully by the time we play Cranborne Bullets next Monday. We really need to have a full complement of our squad to pick the team from.”
Maruwa said in the event that all or some of the injured fail to recover in time to play a part in the match against Cranborne Bullets, he has sufficient cover to plug the gaps.
“Remember we have more than 25 registered players in our team. You saw last week, we introduced Donald Dzvinyai in place of Moyo and all of the guys withdrawn due to injuries had equally good replacements.
“The idea is to have all of your players available for selection but there are things you can’t control as a coach like injuries.
“But, we have depth in our squad with a lot of players who are equally good to compete when thrown into the fray.”
Mudadi was replaced by Shadreck Nyahwa while Eli Ilunga came in for Chintuli with Denver Mukamba replacing Matindife in the match against Simba Bhora.
There are several players in the Glamour Boys books who are yet to feature for the team as well.
They include Emmanuel Ziocha, Keith Madera, Brendon Mpofu and Tendaishe Magwaza among others.
Striker Jayden Bakare is also likely to be unleashed in the match against Cranborne Bullets after the formalisation of his deal and the subsequent registration last week.
Online Reporter