Injury crisis hits Bosso

A CRISIS is looming in the Bulawayo giants Highlanders' defence ahead of a very crucial Castle Lager Premiership match on the road to Triangle this weekend and head coach Kelvin Kaindu is a worried man.

"The number of injuries we are picking per match is really of worry to us," said Kaindu.

Bosso will be looking to make it three out of three after collecting maximum points in their opening two matches against Shabanie Mine and Harare City respectively. They won both matches 2-0.

Newly promoted Triangle, who lost their opening match to Chicken Inn 2-1, upped their game and drilled three goals past a hapless Shabanie Mine at Gibbo Stadium at the weekend and would want to maintain their good start at home by embarrassing Highlanders.

Under normal circumstances, the black and white army would have gone to the Gishon Ntini-coached Triangle with some hope but these are not normal circumstances.

Two of their key defenders are nursing injuries while skipper Innocent Mapuranga is reportedly not fully fit despite playing for 90 minutes on Monday.

Like a soldier, he carried the burden of playing in pain for the team. Right back Bruce Tshuma, the target man for Bosso's assaults, sustained a knee injury towards the end of the first half and never came back. At Maglas Stadium, vice skipper Erick Mudzingwa was pulled out a few minutes after the start of the match with a suspected ankle injury. It was his first match of the season after regaining fitness from a fractured rib.

Following the injury to the duo of Tshuma and Mudzingwa, coach Kaindu made some positional changes and on Monday, midfielder Simon Munawa was dropped to the right-back position as there was no one else on the bench to replace the injured Tshuma. Lawson Nkomo, another injury prone defender, was not in the team.

"Erick is still out injured while Tshuma's injury looks a bit better than previously feared. We will see how it works out though," said Kaindu, before adding that Nkomo might bounce back into the team if he does well during training. The injuries to the Highlanders defence and the paucity of resources at their disposal in terms of depth comes barely a few weeks after the club offloaded two defenders, Atlast Musasa and young Lewis Rambo Ncube as well as midfielder Arnold Ndiweni.

Coming in were juniors and three "mature" players in Douglas Sibanda, Njabulo Tshiki Ncube and Mike Madzivanyika. Ncube has been in terrific form for Bosso scoring six goals in five matches and has so far justified the trust that Kaindu bestowed on him.

Sibanda has shown some promise and could be counted on with enough game time while Madzivanyika is yet to stamp his authority.

That should be a cause for concern because for a new player, he has to show why he is now a member of the black and white family and that can only be done by playing week in and week out. He needs to prove that he is better than Ndiweni who has since joined How Mine.

Madzivanyika, just like for any other new player in any team, must also prove that he has certain attributes that make him better than those who were there.

Even Kaindu, though not coming out clear, agrees that some work needs to be done on Madzivanyika and maybe Sibanda.

"I am hopeful that with time they will pick up. We need to work on them and as the season progresses, I am sure they will gel with the rest of the guys," said Kaindu.