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teammates went about their training session.
This left coach Callisto Pasuwa sweating over his fitness while the injured Tawanda Muparati, who also did not train yesterday, remains a big concern.
The Glamour Boys are scheduled to leave for Tunisia this evening where they will battle Club Bizertin in a Champions League, first round, first leg tie on Sunday.
The Harare giants will travel via Dubai and are expected to arrive in the capital Tunis around lunch time tomorrow.
They will have two days to acclimatise with the cold weather conditions currently prevailing in the Mediterranean region.
Pasuwa was yesterday waiting to hear from the club’s medical team after Jaure failed to take part in training with suspected heartburn.
The DeMbare camp, which is hoping for a positive result in Tunisia, is also keeping a keen eye on midfielder Muparati, who is still recovering from the finger injury he suffered in their last outing in Lesotho.
Muparati’s hand has been in plaster for the past week which made it difficult for him to train with the rest of the team.
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However, Pasuwa said he was not pressing the panic button despite other injury concerns surrounding Devon Chafa and Francisco Zekumbawira.
Chafa is walking wounded with a groin injury while Zekumbawira received a knock on the thigh muscle. Nonetheless, Pasuwa could draw comfort from the fact that both players were able to go through their paces.
The same, though, could not be said about Jaure and Muparati.
“We are not sure what the problem with Jaure is, but he has been vomiting and couldn’t train. I think it’s heartburn, but he should be okay,” said Pasuwa.
“We also expect Tawanda (Muparati) to get his plaster removed tomorrow (today). It was difficult for him to train with the team and has been going through his own programme.”
DeMbare, who were left with 20 players on their list eligible to play in this year’s Champions League at this stage, will be forced to take to Tunisia the same squad that played in Lesotho.
The DeMbare technical team does not have options as defensive midfielder Milton Makopa is still unavailable due to sickness while newboy Sydney Linyama, who also missed the preliminary round tie, has been ruled out of the trip because he is not match fit.
“The problem is that we don’t have depth. We have 18 players who travelled to Lesotho and those are the same who are going to Tunisia,” said Pasuwa.
“We had one extra player who is registered, Sydney (Linyama), but he only trained for two days and in terms of fitness level he couldn’t catch up with the other guys.
“Besides that, we are ready for the battle and I think the players are motivated. We are going out there to pull a surprise.”
DeMbare, who progressed from the preliminary round courtesy of a 3-1 victory over Lesotho Correctional Services, are looking to do well in the first leg to make their task easier in the return match at Rufaro in a fortnight.
The Glamour Boys have often found the going tough in North Africa, but Pasuwa said he has been encouraging his charges to keep focused.
“I don’t know much about Bizertin, but I know how Tunisians play. However, statistics about the team on the Internet can also be useful,” said Pasuwa.
“For example, we found out that this team’s average height is 1,84m and their average weight is 77kg and this shows how big they are. Our tallest player is George (Chigova) and he is around 1,8m with our team average height on 1,6m and a weight of 65kg.
“These people try to find your weakness and exploit that. The last time we played in Tunisia, Esperance maximised on that as they were just looking for set-pieces near our goal area which we had problems in dealing with because of our height.
“So we are working on set-pieces.”
Pasuwa said for all their preparations, it will all come down to how his boys respond to the challenge on the day of the match.
The last time DeMbare were in Tunisia, they suffered a 0-6 hiding, their worst humiliation in 33 years of flirtation with inter-club football on the continent, and the Glamour Boys will be out to avoid a similar embarrassment.
The DeMbare gaffer said the coaches can do so much, preparing the team, but it’s the players who will have to handle the heat in the battle.
“It’s the way you fare when you go out there for an away game that matters,” said Pasuwa.
“We want a positive result in Tunisia so that when we play the second leg here we won’t be under pressure.
“We need a win, a draw and if it happens that we lose it should be by a small margin so that we can be able to work around to overturn that result in the return leg,” said Pasuwa.
The Tunisian club were held to a draw in their last home tie in the Champions League by their Libyan counterparts and that should give DeMbare hope for a favourable result.
DeMbare vice-chairman Webster Chikengezha, who is also the club’s acting secretary-general, confirmed that the team’s travel arrangements have been sorted out.
The Harare giants would not want to repeat the drama that happened in Maseru when they missed their flight last week.
“We finally got our visas from the Tunisian Football Federation, who have told us that they are going to give us visas at the port of entry.
“So our preparations are good and we are all ready. We are yet to find out the exact time that we will arrive in the town that we are going to play the game, but we have been told that it should be an hour’s drive (from the capital Tunis),” said Chikengezha.
Online Reporter