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ZIMBABWE international Talent Chawapihwa is at odds with his coach at Baroka Wedson Nyirenda.

KickOff.com understands a rift may be developing between Baroka attacker Chawapihwa and head coach Nyirenda.

According to a source, Chawapihwa has taken issue with some public utterances made by Nyirenda.

“The player is not injured, he was dropped,” the source says ahead of last night’s clash with Free State Stars at Peter Mokaba Stadium.

“They didn’t explain anything to him. Weekend he played and then he was substituted. No one knows exactly what is happening, but the boy loves the club. Maybe they have got issues with him, for him to be dropped in the team without any explanation.

“Remember the coach said something in the media. He said the boy thinks he is bigger than the team. He told journalists that he doesn’’t wanna perform any more. That’s why he dropped him, he thinks he is influencing everyone to perform bad. The way he started I think he performed like in five games, so if he doesn’t perform in one game it doesn’t make him a bad player. We don’t know, why he dropped the boy.

“Now people are texting the boy saying “what are you doing? The chairman has invested in you and you are not respecting him and stuff’’.

They’ve got some MDC boys playing in his space. The coach thinks the boy is choosing games to play. Sometimes he is forced to perform even if he is sick. How can you, how can you give 100% if you are not 100% fit?”

Contacted for comment, Bakgaga CEO Morgan Mammila said people are reading too much into the coach’s recent statement that some players in the team are not pulling their weight.

“No, how can a player and a coach not see eye-to-eye and the coach plays the player?

“Talent, when we played Chippa he was sick just a few minutes before the game, because the coach trusted the player he played him. And the last game (against Orlando Pirates) he played, so I don’t know where these people get the story.

“Obviously maybe they misunderstood him when he said some players they are not pulling up their socks. Or maybe because the previous game it was not the Talent that we all know.

Even the media, that’s why they were not throwing a question of Talent to him because they could see all of them that he is not the Talent that we all know.”

Chawapihwa, who was linked with Kaizer Chiefs during the last transfer window, is yet to score in seven Absa Premiership games this season. — Kickoff.