By ROBINSON KUNDA and CHISHALA MUSONDA
NATIONAL team assistant coach Patrice Beaumelle says Saturday’s friendly against Namibia is an opportunity for local players to challenge for places in the Chipolopolo.
The Namibians are reflecting on the match as an honour to play immediate past Africa champions.
And enterprising midfielder Roderick Kabwe is doubtful for the match against Namibia after suffering a knee injury in training yesterday.
Beaumelle said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday after a morning training session at Nkoloma Stadium that all the players that were called for the game have reported.
He said players’ commitment is perfect.
“It’s always good to have local players in camp because we have to assess them. Today, we had the full team. Everybody reported yesterday, so everything is perfect now,” he said.
Beaumelle said it up to the players to use the game in Windhoek to convince the national technical bench that they deserve places in the senior Chipolopolo.
He said the technical bench is concentrating on the local players for now because they want to identify new faces that could be picked for the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches against Lesotho and Sudan next month.
He said World Cup qualifiers are important and the technical bench wants to build a formidable squad.
“The game against Namibia is very important. We are taking it seriously and in fact all matches are important. There are no friendly games.
“I am sure Namibia would like to beat Zambia. So, it’s an important game,” he said.
Meanwhile, midfielder Kabwe yesterday suffered a knee injury that could keep him out of the game against Namibia.
The Zanaco defender was tackled from behind and the medical personnel need to examine the extent of the injury.
Kabwe was to be taken to hospital yesterday for medical examinations.
The technical bench is also hoping that midfielder Rainford Kalaba’s injury is not serious. The crafty Kalaba was injured while playing for his club side TP Mazembe last weekend.
“You know how important Kalaba is to the team, so we are hoping that the injury is not serious and it is not affecting him very much,” Beaumelle said.
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