HIGHLANDERS goalkeeper Ariel Sibanda will miss the Chibuku Super Cup quarter-final tie against holders Harare City at Rufaro Stadium tomorrow after he suffered a head injury that has seen him fail to train for the whole week.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
THE Bulawayo giants’ first choice shot stopper sustained the injury in the league game against Caps United at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday and he joins striker Tafadzwa Sibanda and skipper Honest Moyo on the sidelines.
Coach Madinda Ndlovu confirmed Ariel’s injury and will be forced to pick either Nedrick Madeya, whom he complained of indiscipline after the mid-week league game against Yadah, or Prosper Matutu.
Despite the absence of Ariel and the other key players, Ndlovu re-iterated his ambition to clinch the Chibuku Super Cup and end the season in the top-four in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League.
“We have disadvantages here and there in terms of personnel. The goalkeeper Ariel (Sibanda) had a nasty head injury last week and has not been training with the team. We still have to get the details of the injury from the doctors. Nothing has come out up to today, which means the injury is serious. The captain (Moyo) is still nursing an injury as is Tafadzwa (Sibanda). Those are the difficulties we are facing, but it’s an assignment that we have to deal with and we have to meet the target of getting to the final and win this cup,” Ndlovu said.
He said while they still want to pursue a top four finish, it is imperative that they win the cup competition.
“The cup game is totally different from the league. It’s unrealistic now talking about the league title. For us, we have tried to give ourselves a target of fourth position and try as hard as we can in this cup. We still want to pursue the two and see how far we can go,” he said.
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He added that he is wary of the Harare City threat.
“We know who we are facing. They have been playing very well. They have posted good results of late. We have played them before and we know what they are capable of doing. We will go into this game with the mind that the only disadvantage we have is the venue (being away).”
