NAIROBI, Kenya, December 2 – Two Eritrean national team players went missing from camp ahead of their GOtv Cecafa Group C tie against defending champions Uganda Cranes on Monday at Nairobi’s City Stadium.
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) technical committee chairman Elly Mukholwe, confirmed to Capital Sport the duo who are yet to be identified, disappeared on Saturday when they went to watch a match at Nyayo National Stadium.
“It’s true two Eritrean players have escaped from camp since Saturday and they have not been found yet.
“We are having a meeting with Cecafa organizers to determine which action will be taken against the team,” the FKF technical director told.
This is not the first time the players vanish when they are participating in an international tournament, last year a number of them disappeared during the last year’s edition held in Kampala, Uganda with almost the entire team going missing when Kenya last held the tournament in 2009.
Meanwhile, TP Mazembe duo Mbwana Samata and Thomas Ulimwengu are expected to join the Kilimanjaro Stars camp, to boost their striking force in the ongoing regional tournament.
According to Tanzania head coach Kim Poulsen, who has seen his side found the back of the net only twice in the competition, the team has been lacking goals due to lack of experienced forwards.
“We have been struggling with our striking force in the past two games, and that’s means it will be good for us when the forwards joins the team for the rest of the competition.
“The duo will help the team create more chances and strengthen the attacking since we have been lacking goals, the first match against Zambia it was a defender who scored, so we need strong strikers ahead of our final preliminary match against Burundi on Wednesday,” the Danish-born coach who’s charges are at the top of Group B jointly with guests Zambia with four points said after seeing off Somalia 1-0 on Sunday.
The two players, who were drafted into Poulsen’s squad before the competition kicked-off, could not join the team for the first two matches since their Congolese club, TP Mazembe was hosting CS Sfaxien from Tunisia in the CAF Confederations Cup final on Saturday.
Mazembe won the match 2-1 with Mbwana Samatta scoring one of the goals but the Tunisian side clinched their third title in a 3-2 aggregate.