BY TERRY MADYAUTA
FC PLATINUM gaffer Heindrikus Pieter de Jongh (pictured) has expressed concern over the fitness levels of his players ahead of their Caf Champions League return next month with up to seven players deemed overweight.
After several months of inactivity, the Zimbabwe champions were finally allowed group training by the government and have started to work hard with the competition’s preliminary round ties weeks away.
Since March, the players have been limited to individual training regime at home over the lockdown period, but some of the players did not adhere to their programmes and have gained weight. The former Highlanders boss revealed that 20 of the players were in good shape and they would soon increase work load.
He revealed that 20 of his players had the normal body weight and that he has resorted to giving the other seven a tight training schedule for them to lose weight which he reckons is key in a player’s endurance.
“We are train every day of the week where we have one session per day and we will move to have two sessions per day,” he said yesterday.
“Other players are fit but some are not fit enough. Around seven players not fit, but the other 20 are fit so we are giving them extra training.
“Every player is different in height but some have not been monitoring their weight and we want to work on that before it’s too late.”
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FC Platinum were given the greenlight to resume training last week ahead of their Caf Champions League campaign set to start next month.
Again, the platinum miners are paying a heavy price for their dismal performance in the last edition as they are starting the campaign in the preliminary round.
They are yet to learn their opponents in this edition, nonetheless De Jongh is upbeat and hoping to engineer a better campaign, where they can go beyond the group stages.
