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Mukudzei Chingwere Sports Reporter
UK-BASED Warriors central defender Alec Mudimu has pledged his commitment to the cause of the senior national football team following their heart-breaking elimination from the 2019 AFCON finals in Egypt.

Mudimu showed his dedication to Zimbabwe when he was part of a few players who made the trip into Harare after a horrendous tour of duty, before he flew out to prepare for pre-season at his club, Cefn Druids AFC, in Wales.

The rock solid central defender talked of his delight to have represented his country at a major international tournament, but was quick to say he was disheartened by the Warriors early elimination from this year’s AFCON finals.

“It’s been a memorable experience to say the least. It helped me a lot deeper than I thought it will be to be quite honest,” he said.  “It is very unfortunate (the Warriors failed to go beyond the group stages) what we now need to do now is to rebuild and focus on the World Cup qualifiers, come September.

“It has been a very a difficult time not just for the nation but for the players as well. This is a tournament we really wanted to be really in not just for ourselves but for the nation, we have let ourselves down,” said Mudimu. The 24-year-old said Zimbabwe have a bright future in the game, imploring stakeholders to remain behind the team.

“So it is how we improve and build back to where we want to be, (I think) we are moving in the right direction.

“In terms of football, I think we are moving in the right direction, but at the moment we are in a delicate situation after being knocked out in such a manner.

“So like I said it is about reacting and moving in the right way forward and building properly in a positive manner. The last thing we need is negativity, again we need to be positive, stick together and regroup,” said Mudimu.

Mudimu will not be short of suitors across Europe after providing an important defensive stability that restricted the highly fancied Egyptians to just one goal in the opening game.

The Wales-based defender combined well with South Africa- based wing-back Divine Lunga at the left side of defence to keep Liverpool star forward Mohammed Salah at bay. Meanwhile, despite Zimbabwe’s disastrous and humiliating exit from the 2019 AFCON finals, there is a glimmer of hope with a number of clubs across the globe weighing up moves for the Warriors players.

Zimbabwe started the competition impressively with a narrow and unfortunate 0-1 loss to hosts Egypt in the tournament’s opening match.

In the second and third games the Warriors were, however, among other things, weighed down by a catastrophic administration which was accused of failing to meet its financial obligations.