Mahachi out of Guinea tie

By Nigel Matongorere

Warriors midfielder Kuda Mahachi has been ruled out for at least five weeks with a fractured arm and will miss Sunday’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier away to Guinea. 

The Golden Arrows winger suffered the injury after falling awkwardly during the team’s morning training session at Gateway High School and was rushed to hospital where the arm was placed in a protective cast.

“The injury needs to be operated on for him to recover fast and we expect him to be out for a minimum five weeks from the time of the operation,” Warriors team doctor Nick Munyonga told reporters yesterday.

“We have made a number of arrangements to allow him to be operated on with two options. Either he can be operated on here or in South Africa.

“We have been in touch with his club and there are arrangements that the rehabilitation can be better if he is at his base in South Africa.”

The Warriors technical department have resisted the temptation to add another player to replace the injured Golden Arrows star.

“The situation with Kuda is very clear . . . there will be no replacements for him as we will go as we are; with only 17 players,” Warriors team manager Sharif Musa said.

“We were supposed to leave early tomorrow (today) morning but due to logistical and resources challenges within the office, that plan has not been possible.

“We are now running late against time and hopefully maybe we could be leaving by Friday morning.”

Warriors coach Kalisto Pasuwa had been training with only 14 players since Monday as they will join up with the European contingent of Knowledge Musona, Costa Nhamoinesu, Matthew Rusike and Marvellous Nakamba in Conakry.

Zimbabwe have already qualified for Afcon finals to be held in Gabon early next January after reaching an unassailable 11 points from five matches.

Sunday’s match is effectively a dead rubber but Pasuwa wants to use the encounter as part of his preparations for next year’s finals. Daily News