Petros Kausiyo and Eddie Chikamhi
FRANCE-based midfielder Ovidy Karuru has been ruled out of the Warriors’ decisive 2013 African Cup of Nations first round, sec­ond leg qualifier against Burundi following a rib injury, while chief striker Knowledge Musona is also doubtful.

The match will be played at the National Sports Stadium on Sunday.
Zifa last night made sensational claims that Karuru and Musona were yesterday “seen entering the premises of people implicated in the Asiagate scam’’.
Mashingaidze claimed the pair had been spotted by their intelligence officials at the premises, which house the offices of former Zifa chief executive Henrietta Rushwaya in Harare, and they had since alerted the War­riors’ technical department about the devel­opments.

Zifa accuse Rushwaya and the association’s former programmes officer Jonathan Musavengana of being the masterminds of Asiagate.

“During lunch we were tipped by our secu­rity team that is on the ground that some of our players were seen entering and later leav­ing premises of people who were heavily involved in Asiagate.
“We feel and believe that this cannot be allowed to continue unabated and it is dis­turbing that barely 48 hours after the per­formance in Maputo they are spending time in the company of people who, in the first place, led them into being fingered and some of them even suspended.

“We have alerted the technical team and it is now up to them to decide on how they han­dle the matter but clearly there are a lot of machinations against the national team and this is the work of the third force that we have been talking about.
“It shows that those people who were involved in Asiagate are unrepentant but the question to ask is — Is that what we want for Zimbabwe?’’ Mashingaidze said.

The Zifa chief executive also said they had received reports of an alleged plan to have a militant section of the fans coming to cause mayhem against Burundi.
“Our intelligence has also gathered that a rented crowd is being prepared to come and cause disturbances during the game against Burundi so that Zifa is blamed and fined heavily by Caf and Fifa.

“We have also since alerted the police about all this and we are beefing up security around the Warriors,’’ Mashingaidze said.
The Warriors host the Stallions needing to overturn a 2-1 deficit and progress to the sec­ond and final Nations Cup qualifier.
It is a match that under-pressure coach Rahman Gumbo and his men cannot afford to lose, as this is a knockout game. But the Warriors coach would now have to make do without Karuru following the former Masvingo United and Gunners forward’s injury.

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Karuru had to be substituted early into the second half after coming worse off from the challenge of a Mozambican opponent with Dynamos midfielder Denver Mukamba com­ing in for him in the 53rd minute.

That was not before the US Boulogne for­ward had missed a golden opportunity to put the Warriors ahead in the 42nd minute when he opted to pass despite being clear on goal.

Karuru watched the remainder of the match clutching an ice pack around his ribs after being stretchered off the pitch.
It however, emerged after Warriors team doctor Nick Munyonga took both Karuru and Musona for scans yesterday that it is the midfielder who would definitely miss the game.

Munyonga said Karuru would need at least two weeks to recover while the Warriors team doctor remained optimistic about Musona’s chances of shaking off the knock and featur­ing in the tie against Burundi.

Musona scored in the 2-1 first leg defeat in Bujumbura, just hours after touching down in Burundi and his goal has left the Warriors hopeful that even a 1-0 win would do as the away goals rule would come into play.

While there are strong chances over Musona’s availability, it is Karuru, who for the second time would have to miss the clash between the Warriors and Burundi.
Karuru missed the first keg in February as he was still serving suspension from Zifa for having been fingered in the Asiagate scam.
Although he had bounced back to the War­riors after being cleared and featured in two matches, injury has this time conspired to ensure Karuru will not play part in the senior team’s Nations Cup first round qualifying assignment.

“He has a crack on his sixth rib and obvi­ously it needs a minimum of two weeks to heal so Ovidy is definitely out for this game. Musona picked an ankle injury which are monitoring after taking him for a scan and there are chances that he can recover in time for the game.

“Willard Katsande also received a knock which we, however, felt did not warrant a fur­ther investigation through a scan although we are monitoring him.
“So far those three players are the only wor­ries in camp,’’ Munyonga said.
The Warriors,who returned home on Monday night, were back in training at the National Sorts Stadium’s B arena yesterday afternoon with the senior side still in soul-searching mode following their worst start to a World Cup cause. The injuries to key play­ers could also force Gumbo to draft more men this week.

The caretaker coach has already drafted last season’s Golden Boot winner, Roderick Mutuma, into the squad ahead of the game against Burundi on Sunday.
The Dynamos striker yesterday joined the team in their paces at the National Stadium B Arena under assistant coaches Peter Ndlovu and David Mandigora as Rahman Gumbo had been summoned by his employers, FC Platinum, for a meeting.

He is expected back in camp this after­noon.
The assistant coaches took the players through a stretching exercise to loosen mus­cles in the afternoon as they tried to recover from the weekend trip to Mozambique.

Ndlovu yesterday said they needed to look at more options after his side failed to score in the opening two World Cup qualifiers against Guinea and Mozambique despite creating some chances and getting into scoring posi­tions.

He said Mutuma, who finished Top Goal Scorer last season with 14 goals, was the natu­ral choice to join DeMbare teammate Takesure Chinyama, Terrence Mandaza and Musona.

“I always believe that the top goal scorer should be in the national team and others should be there to complement him. That is my philosophy,” said Ndlovu.
“I think we need every player that scores goals because our finishing has been our big let down. So if you are here and you put the ball behind the back of the nets you have chances of being called,” he said.

Meanwhile, Zifa chief executive Mashin­gaidze is optimistic the Asiagate Independent Ethics committee would this week be able to finalise their interviews with the foreign-based players who were implicated in the scam.

Mashingaidze said yesterday they had invited all foreign-based players, who are still to be interviewed by the Justice Ebrahim committee, to converge at the Zifa headquar­ters this morning.
“We are inviting all the foreign-based play­ers to come to Zifa tomorrow (today) at 10am to finalise on their interviews with the Ebrahim committee.

“As you know we would want to bring a close to this matter so that those who will be cleared can move on with their careers and become available for national duties again,’’ Mashingaidze said.