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 Majuto Omary
The Citizen Reporter
Dar es Salaam. Young Africans have been dealt a major blow with the news that midfielder Nurdin Bakari faces lengthy layoff with two broken fingers.The club’s chairman, Lyoid Nchunga, told The Citizen yesterday that the midfield maestro would be on the treatment table for four weeks.
This means Bakari will not be part of the travelling squad for a tricky African Champions League encounter against Zamalek of Egypt on February 18.Bakari, who will also miss three Premier League matches, fractured his fingers after colliding with defender Oscar Joshua during yesterday’s training session at Lugalo grounds.
“Bakari suffered a broken thumb on Wednesday and chances are that he will not recover in time for the trip to Cairo. According to our physician, Bakari needs four to five weeks to recover, therefore he will miss four matches including the Zamalek clash. It’s a big blow for Yanga.”
Head coach Kostandin Papic will now bank on Shamte Ally to fill the void left by the former Simba Sc player. Nchunga added : “It is always disappointing to lose a player of Bakari’s calibre but Yanga are a good team and good teams adapt to injuries, and that is what we intend to do.”
The outspoken chairman also expressed his gladness at the return to action of their injured first choice goalkeeper, Yaw Berko.Nchunga said the 32-year-old Ghanaian, who was nursing a nagging shoulder injury would resume full training on Monday.
“Berko will return from his long injury lay off on Monday, it is a huge boost for Yanga and everybody is in cheerful spirits,” he said. Commenting on Yanga’s preparations for the Zamalek match, the chairman said they had cancelled plans to pitch a camp in Mwanza instead the team will train in Dar es Salaam.“The team will no longer travel to Mwanza for training, for we will incur huge expenses, therefore Yanga will continue with training here,” he said.
Nchunga reiterated that knocking out the Egyptian heavyweights was a must for Yanga to restore their dented pride in the continent’s premier club competition.He defined his team’s ambitions for the match by revealing he would be disappointed if they fail to make it into the next stage of the African version of the Uefa Champions League.
According to him, they have set a target of emulating, if not surpassing, the feat achieved by their nemesis Simba in 2003.
Simba caused one of the major upsets in the African Champions League history when they saw off Zamalek, then the title-holders, to march into the last eight."It is an arduous task, but it is a challenge we really relish and we are excited to be up in arms against Zamalek,” he said. “We expect to play a number of high-profile friendlies ahead of the Zamalek match in order to perfect our tactics and give our team the confidence they need to send the Egyptians crashing out,” he added.
Former Africa Champions League title-holders TP Mazembe of DR Congo are among the teams the Mainland champions intend to face in the build-ups.“If all goes well, we’ll also face Power Dynamos of Zambia, Malawi’s Telecom and URA of Uganda before taking on Zamalek,” Nchunga said.
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