Simba feel Mushunje’s absence

Bruce Chikuni
SIMBA Bhora striker, Tinashe Balakasi, has admitted that the death of their former teammate, Barnabas Mushunje, was weighing down heavily on them.

Mushunje died last month in a horror car accident on his return to the club’s base in Shamva.

It was less than six months since he joined the ambitious side but his contributions were immense during that period.

Simba Bhora players are believed to be still psychologically impacted by the untimely death of one of their own. They are yet to score two goals in a match, since Mushunje’s death.

For the first time, they have now gone for two games without a win and a goal.

Balakasi, who has so far scored 19 times in 20 appearances, seems to be struggling to reproduce the energy and hun-ger he exhibited before the mid-season break.

After the mid-season break, he has only scored once, and it was a penalty.

Balakasi and Mushunje’s combination had built a ruthless combination as the duo would take turns to shoulder the scoring burden for the team.

“We can not deny that Mushunje has left a deep wound which will take time to heal,” said Balakasi.

“I think everyone, who has been following Simba Bhora, can attest to that, we all knew that Mushunje would give us his moments of brilliance, whenever we were in trouble.

“We are still trying to recover from the agony which we experienced following his demise and we are really trying to get back our energy levels.

“We know it’s just a matter of time before we get back to our best during this tough phase.”

Mushunje had won two Man-of-the-Match awards in the ongoing Axis Super8 Cup and he was a contender to win the tournament’s best prize.

ZIFA Northern Region chairman, Martin Kweza, is on record highlighting that Mushunje was one of the potential can-didates for the league’s Soccer Star of the Year award.

Simba Bhora settled for a goalless draw against Black Mambas over the weekend.

A derby awaits them this coming weekend as they meet Trojan Stars at Wadzanai.

Trojan Stars’ mentor, Ralph Kawondera, was once in charge of Simba.

He had a short stint as Arthur “Tuts” Tutani assistant coach early this year at Simba Bhora.