adminRicky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Warriors squad to face Tanzania in the first leg of the first round 2015 Africa Nations Cup in Dar-es-Salaam on May 16-18 is expected to be named tomorrow.
Zimbabwe will have less than five days to prepare for the crucial encounter as players are expected to join camp soon after their weekend matches with the team set to leave for Tanzania sometime next week. The return fixture is set for Harare in a fortnight thereafter.
Should they sail past Tanzania, the Warriors will face the winner between Mozambique and South Sudan in the second round set for July. In the event that Zimbabwe clears the qualifying round stages, they will proceed to join Group F which has 2012 Africa Cup of Nations winners Zambia, Cape Verde and Niger.
The group stages will be played between September and November with the winners and runners-up of each group making it to next year’s finals in Morocco.
In a telephone interview from Harare yesterday, senior national team manager Sharrif Mussa said they are yet to finalise on the squad as the coaches are still assessing the availability of some of the players.
Khama Billiat of South Africa’s Mamelodi Sundowns has been out for weeks due to injury and is unlikely to feature with Ian Gorowa’s preferred left-back Milton Ncube racing against time to recover from a leg injury sustained last week while striker Knowledge Musona has also been out of action at Kaizer Chiefs.
Also doubtful is Czech Republic-based Costa Nhamoinhesu whose club Sparta Prague is a point away from claiming the league title with three games left. The defender is nursing a shoulder injury and is one of the players that might not be available for the first leg because the Afcon 2015 qualifiers fall outside Fifa sanctioned calendar dates and clubs can choose not to release players.
The Fifa media department said: “The release of players is only possible upon mutual agreement between the national associations and the clubs to which the players belong.”
“There is no obligation for the clubs to release their players on these dates.”
In that respect, Mussa is hopeful that they will not encounter club versus country battles in securing players.
“There are some things that we are working out and that is why it has taken us this long to announce the squad because there are issues to do with engaging clubs where players belong especially outside Zimbabwe. The South African season ends this weekend so we don’t think clubs will hold on to their players since the season will be over. There is also the issue of Fifa saying clubs are not obligated to release players but we hope to juggle around that.
“The other thing that is making us delay is that some of the players are injured and we are monitoring their progress. We are also looking at the replacements,” said Mussa.
South Africa-based players in contention for places in the Warriors include goalkeeper Washington Arubi, Kaizer Chiefs trio of Willard Katsande, Matthew Rusike and Kingstone Nkatha, Onismor Bhasera of Bidvest Wits, Maritzburg United striker Terrence Mandaza and Carrington Nyadombo of AmaZulu.
Besides Nhamoinesu, players in Europe that the Warriors technical team might be monitoring include Denmark-based duo of Quincy Antipas and Silas Songani, and Nyasha Mushekwi, Ovidy Karuru and Vusa Nyoni from Belgium as well as England-based Bradley Pritchard.
From those plying their trade in the local league there is Highlanders’ Kudakwashe Mahachi, Danny Phiri (Chicken Inn), Partson Jaure and George Chigova of Dynamos, Hwange’s Eric Chipeta and Hardlife Zvirekwi (Caps United).
Online Reporter