BY HENRY MHARA
KNOWLEDGE Musona’s club KAS Eupen has agreed to release Warriors’ skipper for Zimbabwe’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers later this month, but doubts have emerged over the availability of France-based duo of Tino Kadewere and Marshal Munetsi.
Kadewere’s club Lyon and Munetsi’s team Stade Reims have not yet committed themselves to releasing the players and the Warriors technical team has become anxious, with two weeks to go before the two important matches.
Zimbabwe travel to Botswana for their penultimate Group H qualifier before concluding their qualification campaign with a home match against Zambia four days later.
There are genuine fears that most of the Warriors’ Europe-based stars will fail to travel for the two assignments after some clubs threatened to withdraw players from international matches if there is a chance they will have to quarantine on their return under coronavirus rules.
Arrivals in most European countries from “Red List” countries, which Zimbabwe is listed under, are subject to 10 days hotel confinement, something that most clubs are not comfortable with.
However, some teams where there are no such requirements are looking to take advantage of the situation and block their players from travelling for international duty.
Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp on Wednesday said he would not release his players for the international matches if the coronavirus rule in the United Kingdom is enforced, while Aston Villa have already blocked Warriors star midfielder Marvelous Nakamba from travelling to Zimbabwe on similar grounds.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
World governing body Fifa has given clubs dispensation to prevent players who may be affected by the regulations from joining up with their countries for the matches.
The good news is that Belgian side KAS Eupen has said Musona is free to travel for the two fixtures.
Warriors manager Wellington Mupandare revealed yesterday that the club had confirmed the captain’s availability.
“We have received a confirmation letter from KAS Eupen for Knowledge Musona which is good news for the team and the supporters,” he said.
The striker himself confirmed his availability.
Responding to one of his followers on Twitter, Emmanuel Dziva, who had asked if he would turn up for the two matches, which Musona responded: “Yes mudhara.”
Mupandare said he was still waiting to hear from the other European clubs.
“We are still waiting, but very much worried with what we hear about some clubs threatening to withdraw their players for international duty. We are praying that we will have all our players for these two crucial matches. We need all our best players available to enhance our chances of qualification,” he said.
There are 13 players based in Europe that were named in the 38-member provisional squad announced by Warriors coach Zdravko Logarušic last week.
Logarušic said he named a bloated squad because of uncertainty over the availability of some players due to injury and COVID-19 regulations in different parts of the globe.
Musona has just recovered from an injury which had sidelined him since the start of the year.
The 30-year-old was injured on January 6 this year in a match against Genk, where he lasted just 30 minutes on the pitch.
He consequently missed his club’s last 12 matches.
But he was thrown straight back into the starting line-up and helped the club to a 2-0 win away at Sint-Truiden and lasted for 70 minutes.
It was the club’s first league win in five matches, highlighting Musona’s significance in the team.
He was on the starting line-up again on Wednesday for his team’s Cup match against Gent with the former Aces Youth Soccer Academy player providing an assist as his team won 1-0.
Musona will be hoping to be given some more minutes to improve his match fitness as the countdown to the two Afcon qualification fixtures continues when KAS Eupen host OH Leuven in a league match tomorrow.
Zimbabwe lie second in Group H with five points, behind log leaders and already qualified Algeria with 10 points. With the top two teams from each group set to qualify to the Afcon finals to be played in Cameroon in January next year, the Warriors will book their place if they beat Botswana and Zambia fail to beat Algeria on the same day.
Botswana have four points, while Zambia are bottom of the group with three points.
- Follow Henry on Twitter @henrymhara
