Warriors coach Norman Mapeza says he will not dwell on players who are not part of the squad set to do duty at the AFCON finals starting with a Group B match against Senegal on Monday.
Several key players missed the trip to Cameroon due to injury, that is, in the case of Marvelous Nakamba, Marshal Munetsi and Brendan Galloway, while Khama Billiat retired last year. Tendayi Darikwa was not included in the squad for personal reasons.
Mapeza said he would rather focus on the players that are available as they have the quality to represent Zimbabwe well at the tournament. He said:
We all respect Khama’s decision but let’s not take anything away from these boys.
If we keep on talking about the players who are not here, I don’t think we will be doing justice for these boys.
They are also here to play football, they also felt Khama should be here.
But, he is not here, so we need to concentrate on what we got and this is what we have.
Warriors manager, Wellington Mpandare, on Monday revealed that Kuda Mahachi, Kundai Benyu and Petros Mhari were all fine after they limped off in the friendly against Sudan on Sunday.
He also said captain Knowledge Musona was expected to arrive this Tuesday while Admiral Muskwe was set to join the squad on Wednesday.
David Moyo and Tino Kadewere jetted into Yaounde on Monday night and on Tuesday, the duo took part in team training.
Meanwhile, Jordan Zemura is now unlikely to play in the tournament because of a COVID-19 outbreak at his English Championship side, AFC Bournemouth.