CAPS ignore Mukamba truancy

CAPS United’s preparations for tomorrow’s Castle Lager Premiership match against Bulawayo City have not been affected by the saga surrounding the AWOL midfielder Denver Mukamba according to the Green Machine technical advisor Nelson Matongorere.

The midfielder, who is on loan from city rivals Dynamos, had been given some time off last week in order to attend to some personal problems.

However, he has been incommunicado ever since and has not attended any training sessions.

The former Bidvest Wits midfielder was shunted out of the Glamour Boys because of his poor disciplinary record before Makepekepe accommodated him.

The Highfield-born star had been exemplary since arriving at the Green Machine at the start season before this latest episode of truancy.

Makepekepe are desperate to get back to winning ways when they take on Bulawayo City at the National Sports Stadium tomorrow following their surprise 1-2 defeat to Mutare City last weekend.

That defeat to Gusha Bhora left Makepekepe in seventh place on the log with 23 points from 15 matches.

However, the Mukamba saga has attracted the most headlines this past week.

“One man cannot make a football team; this is a team sport unlike boxing or swimming. An individual player is not more important than the rest of the team,” Matongorere said.

“We are just treating the situation as if Mukamba is injured so I think we have enough material to fill up the void.”

Matongorere said Mukamba remains a special talent but if he does not show up for training, the coaches will not tolerate his behaviour and the club will have to take action.

“You could see from the matches and the number of minutes he has played that he is an asset to us if he comes for training,” he said.

“Here, we have a policy that if you do not train then you do not play; it’s a club policy. If he comes for training, the coaches will assess him and decide whether to field him or not.

“However, this is now an administrative issue because when a player does not come for training and doesn’t tell the coaches where he is; it’s no longer our problem.

“We do not have to go around chasing after a player at his home or his village; that’s all what we can say about Mukamba at the moment.”

There was, however, some good news for the Green machine this week after captain Stephen Makatuka and midfielder Joel Ngodzo resumed full training.

Makatuka has missed the last four games due to a hamstring strain sustained in the defeat to log leaders Ngezi Platinum Stars last month.

Ngodzo sustained an ankle knock in the 3-0 win over ZPC Kariba which forced him to skip the last two matches.

“They (Makatuka and Ngodzo) started training last week so we will decide whether they will play in our final training sessions tomorrow (today).”   DailyNews