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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
ZIMBABWE international forward, Evans Rusike, is using the football lockdown to try and fully recover from a knee injury which has sidelined him for six weeks.

The striker last played in the South African ABSA Premiership at the end of February and was ruled out for six weeks.

The South African Premiership cancelled their programme last month due to the coronavirus pandemic with players going into isolation with their families at home.

“I was injured and l am taking this time to recover well. I was given a training programme, all of us have been given training programmes to do at home,’’ he said.

‘’Although it is different, training from home and at the ground, it’s important to keep yourself in shape and not lose a lot.

“We are professionals but we can lose fitness by merely not training for two weeks, fitness levels can drop.

‘’l am wondering how we are going to start (the league) after this, are we going to continue or what? It’s just crazy.’’

Rusike said the SuperSport technical bench, headed by Zimbabwean coach Kaitano Tembo, and other fellow players, were supporting each other through their social media platform.

“We are keeping communication alive on our Whatsap group, the players and the coaches, and it’s more of positive talk.

‘’Things like what to do at home during the lockdown, foods to avoid because a lot of people might gain weight during this time.

“We have to stay safe because prevention is better than cure. We have to stay indoors to avoid big crowds and follow the orders and wait and see how all this will end.’’

Rusike was ommitted from the Warriors squad which was supposed to play against Algeria in the back-to-back AFCON qualifiers last month.

The matches were postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

He has featured at the AFCON finals twice.