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Grace Chingoma Sports Reporter
CAPS United received a major boost yesterday when key defender Stephen Makatuka joined the rest of the team at training, while Ronald Pfumbidzai and Dominic Chungwa are expected to follow suit.

As reported by The Herald yesterday, the three players are expected to stay at the Green Machine this season even though they missed the opening week of training amid indications that they wanted to leave.

With normalcy slowly returning to the club, the three key players are expected to be part of the CAPS United team that is being assembled for this season.

CAPS United have already lost skipper Tapuwa Kumbuyani, Tendai Samanja and Tafadzwa Dube as well as striker Kelvin Bulaji.

The Green Machine have made it a priority that the three players remain at the club and the situation has been helped in recent days by developments in the club’s boardroom.

CAPS United president Twine Phiri and his partner Farai Jere have been quietly setting the tempo for the forthcoming season and retaining of key players is top of their list of priorities.

Phiri and Jere thrashed out a new deal in their partnership and the signs coming from the Green Machine camp is that it has blown a breath of fresh air into their team.

Team manager George Gumbo said things were beginning to take shape at the club.

“Stephen trained for the first time today (yesterday) and he showed signs of good fitness. Ronald and Dominic called me and assured me they will come to training but are still sorting out some personal issues.

“Dominic Mukandi also started training last week.

“They are not boycotting training at all but they have just asked to be excused for some time. The real work will begin starting of February and largely our training sessions have been about conducting trials.

“The exercise should be concluded by Saturday and by the first week of February we would have trimmed the squad,” said Gumbo.

The team manager said they did not feel hard done by the players approaching the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe for help in issues related to their contracts.

“The association is for the players and FUZ gave us their recommendation for future developments and this would be implemented by the club,” said Gumbo.