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Tadious Manyepo Sports Reporter

DYNAMOS coach, Tonderai Ndiraya, was hoping to use the 60-day season kick-off suspension to impart skills he picked in Belgium to his players but it is the team’s fitness trainer who will be busy with the team.

Ndiraya spent a 10-day attachment stint with Belgian top-flight side KV Mechelen and also had a chance to interact with the likes of Anderlecht player-coach Vincent Kompany.

He had been hoping to implement some methods he learnt in the European country immediately after his return.

But Ndiraya had to go straight into camp with the local contingent of the Warriors, who were scheduled to go to the Chan finals, before the tournament was shelved due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Ndiraya is one of the assistant coaches for the Warriors whose head coach is Croatian Zdravko Logarusic.

With the Premier Soccer League also following the rest of the world in freezing fixtures, and halting the start of the 2020 season by two months, Ndiraya had hoped to use that window to work with his players.

But, the lockdown meant the DeMbare coach had to draft individual training programmes for his players.

He has had to delegate fitness trainer Tendai Chituwa to make sure that the players stay as fit as possible.

“It’s been difficult to prepare the team but there is nothing we can do. We wanted to keep preparing but we can only do so with good health,’’ said Ndiraya.

“Our Government took an important position to contain the spread of the (coronavirus) pandemic and it is our duty, as part of the citizenry, to support that initiative.

“Tendai Chituwa, our fitness coach, is working with the players on a daily basis to make sure that the players maintain the fitness gains of the past few weeks.”

Ndiraya has assembled a decent-looking squad, shipping in 13 new recruits, as he bids to bring back glory to the Glamour Boys.

DeMbare have fared badly in the past two seasons, surviving relegation by the skin of their teeth in 2018, and finishing in mid-table after a bad start last season.

However, captain Partson Jaure will not be part of the cast in the first half of the term after he was omitted in the PSL registration roaster.

Jaure is in hospital where he is recuperating from the injuries he sustained in a car accident two weeks ago.

The Glamour Boys have engaged psychologists to make sure the players stay focused during this 21-day lockdown period which entered its second week yesterday.