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Harare Bureau
NGEZI Platinum Stars playmaker Denver Mukamba has been included in the Warriors provisional 40-member squad to do duty in the 2021 Afcon finals in Cameroon next month.

The biannual continental show-piece, which was originally scheduled to take place in January this year, will be staged in 2022 after authorities decided to postpone the fiesta due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

While most of the 24 teams forming the tournament’s cast have since stepped up preparations for the jamboree, Zimbabwe do not have a Zifa board in place following their suspension by the Sports Commission on November 16.

With just a month before the games explode in Cameroon, players plying their trade in the local league would have been ordinarily in camp awaiting their foreign-based counterparts to join in.

However, Warriors manager, Wellington Mpandare, has already written invitation letters to 40 players, through their respective clubs, to join camp ahead of the Afcon finals which are set to run from January 9 to February 6 in Cameroon.

And Harare Bureau can reveal that Mukamba, who once wore the squad’s armband back in 2012, has bounced back into the fold.

In fact, Mukamba was at one time named the Warriors captain as a 20-year-old in 2011 by expatriate German coach Klaus Dieter Pagels in a team that had the likes of current captain Knowledge Musona.

Touted as one of the best players of his generation, Mukamba’s career went off the rails due to alcohol and drug abuse.

After being named the Soccer Star of the Year in 2012, he moved to South Africa to Bidvest Wits but did not make an impression.

He later moved to University of Pretoria and Jomo Cosmos on loan but off field shenanigans saw him return home where he played at Dynamos, Caps United, Chapungu and then Ngezi Platinum Stars.

The 31-year-old former Dynamos and Caps United midfielder headlines an array of locally-based players who have also been included after all of them had decent game-time in the Chibuku Super Cup and the Premier Soccer League.

Mukamba was last called into the Warriors by axed Croatian gaffer Zdravko Logarusic when the team played in the Chan finals also held in Cameroon early this year.

The 2012 Soccer Star of the Year was a late addition to the squad after he impressed Logarusic when a band of the players he had initially called played a practice game against Ngezi Platinum Stars.

But, Mukamba’s romance with the Warriors at the Chan tournament was not that fruitful after he and Ngezi Platinum teammate Wellington Taderera were dropped for the final two group games after an alleged fall-out with Logarusic.

Despite the two playing fantastic football for Rodwell Dhlakama’s side in the Chibuku Super Cup and subsequent pressure from the football fraternity to include Mukamba in the Warriors fold, Logarusic refused to call up the skilful player in all assignments after the Chan finals.

Current Warriors gaffer Norman Mapeza, who has failed to win a single game in four World Cup qualifying assignments, has also been turning a blind eye to one of the best play-makers around.

But the lanky star, who scored five goals in the Chibuku Super Cup, is now back in the mix and could solve some of the problems Mapeza is facing ahead of Zimbabwe’s fifth appearance at the Afcon finals.

With the diminutive Kaizer Chiefs forward Khama Billiat, who has previously carried responsibility on his little shoulders, retiring from international duty and Ovidy Karuru inactive for the better part of the year, it is

Mukamba who could be entrusted with play-making responsibilities in Cameroon.

Mpandare did not confirm, neither did he deny that the ex-Kiglon star is in the Afcon team.

“What I can only confirm is that we have drawn up a team of 40 players who will be provisionally available for the Afcon tournament coming up in January next year,” said Mpandare.

“We have since invited them via their respective teams and we are looking forward to have those players in camp as early as practically possible.”

Of the 40 players who have been called into the squad, already Brendan Galloway and Marshal Munetsi have been ruled out due to injuries while the country is also fretting over the fitness of Aston Villa midfielder Marvelous Nakamba.

Nakamba was subbed off in his team’s 0-1 defeat to Liverpool on Saturday in the English Premier League due to a suspected groin strain.

“We are in touch with the Aston Villa staff and Nakamba is scheduled to undergo further tests and we will be in a position to know the way forward pertaining him after those                                                                                             tests.”

Bournemouth defender Jordan Zemura, who has played as a midfielder in four games for the Warriors since November last year, has been on the sidelines for the English Championship side after he sustained an injury at the end of October.

The 21-year-old has begun training though and he will be expected to be fit when he joins camp.

Besides Mukamba, there are also several players playing in the local league who have been called into the squad including the Dynamos duo of Bill Antonio and Godknows Murwira. At the Afcon finals, Zimbabwe are in Group B and open their campaign against West African giants and 2019 finalists Senegal on January 10 before facing Malawi four days later and conclude group business with a date against Guinea on January 18.