By GWEN CHIPASULA –
STRIKER Fashion Sakala has suffered a knock as the Zambian team continues to shape for the 2017 Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals slated for next month.
The Zanaco player has been out of training since Wednesday last week after picking up a knock during training on Tuesday and coach Beston Chambeshi expects the player to be out for a week.
Chambeshi said in an interview on Friday that the medical team made assessments on Sakala and disclosed that he will be out of action for close to a week.
He described the Sakala, who was part of his side that won the Council for Southern African Football Associations (COSAFA) title last month, as instrumental to the team.
Chambeshi said the technical bench has decided to rest Sakala for this week so that he recovers fast to join the team in training next week.
Meanwhile, team hosted a FAZ Division Two side, Circuit City, winning 5-1 in a friendly match played at Sunset Stadium with goals coming through Crispin Sakalanda, Joseph Phiri, Shemmy Mayembe, Edward Tembo and Happy Nsofwa.
Circuit City scored their only goal through Robson Phiri.
Chambeshi said he is happy that the lads are responding well to training and that the technical bench is preparing more local friendly matches to assess the team.
“I am happy with the response from players. This is the first test match we are having since we came back from South Africa and I must say Circuit City really gave us a good training and we need more local friendly matches like this,” Chambeshi said.
Chambeshi said he will not make any more inclusions to the team but will just wait on the foreign based players that are expected to join the team a month before the tournament.