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Sports Reporter
The Young Warriors were still stranded in Harare yesterday as their trip to Swaziland for the return leg of the CAF Under-23 Championships failed to take place as scheduled.

The side was expected to leave yesterday morning but by evening they were still holed up in Harare and even attended the Premiership match between Harare City and Chapungu at Rufaro.

The Zimbabwe Under-23 team face Swaziland at Somhlolo National Stadium tomorrow aiming for a scoring draw or a straight win to progress to the next round.

Coach Callisto Pasuwa and his technical team opted to use the time to hold a training session for his troops as they now look to leave today.

Team manager Sharif Mussa remained optimistic that the team will be leaving for Swaziland, although he admitted that they will have little time to settle before the match.

“At the moment the football association is making frantic efforts and engaging stakeholders to secure transport for the team to leave.

“We had been hoping to secure seats this morning but we failed and now we are trying to see if we can leave in the evening (yesterday) for Johannesburg,” said Mussa.

Mussa said the Young Warriors were expected to complete the last leg of their journey by road.

It’s nearly 360km to travel by road from Johannesburg to Mbabane.

“Then if we fail to leave on Friday evening, we go on Saturday morning and then connect by bus, which should take us nearly four hours,” said Mussa.

The first leg ended in a 0-0 draw at Rufaro last Sunday and Pasuwa will have a difficult time trying to keep his troops focused in spite of the chaotic traveling arrangement.

Meanwhile, Swaziland are leaving nothing to chance in their bid to qualify as they roped in Royal Leopard and Sihlangu winger Mthunzi Mkhontfo for Sunday’s must qualifier against Zimbabwe.