The Sunday News
Mehluli Sibanda in Francistown, Botswana
VETERAN defender, Onismor Bhasera has been called up to the Zimbabwe senior national football team for the final Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Botswana and Zambia.
The 35-year old Bhasera, who is on the books of SuperSport United in South Africa’s Diski Premiership, was drafted into the squad as a replacement for the injured Divine Lunga of Golden Arrows. Lunga informed the technical team that he was injured on the eve of the Warriors departure for Francistown and Bhasera met up with the rest of the squad in Johannesburg before they flew to the city where the match is taking place.
Having missed an opportunity to train at the Obed Itani Chilume Stadium 24 hours prior to the match, the Warriors will take to the field without having a feel of the match venue.
The team had breakfast on Thursday morning before they underwent Polymerase chain reaction tests for the coronavirus, which were conducted at the hotel where the Zimbabweans are staying.
Zimbabwe are second on the log with five points, a point ahead of Botswana who are also chasing a ticket to Cameroon. Bottom of the log placed Zambia, whose remaining fixtures are against Algeria at home as well as Zimbabwe away still have a chance to qualify should they win their two matches and other results go their way. Algeria have already qualified for the tournament but might still want to finish the qualifiers without losing, which means Zambia and Botswana cannot expect favours from the North Africans. -@Mdawini_29
