Malawi National Football Team defender Gomezgani Chirwa has returned to Malawi from South Africa after he lost his passport at OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
Chirwa was with the Flames squad that travelled to South Africa for the Cosafa Cup.
According to Football Association of Malawi (FAM), the player lost his passport at the airport yesterday and was forced to return to Malawi.
“Chirwa is expected to join the team on Tuesday once he sorts out his passport issue,” the football Association said.
The Flames arrived in Durban on Saturday evening ahead of the Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup which will kick off on Tuesday.
The team is being accommodated at Garden Court Southern Beach.
Polokwane City striker Khuda Myaba joined the team last evening.
Meanwhile, three Mighty Mukuru Wanderers players Stanley Sanudi, Chiukepo Msowoya and Yamikani Chester have left Malawi this morning and will join the team later in the evening.
Mozambique based midfielder John Banda and winger Peter Banda will join the team tommorow.
Speaking to members of the press on Friday morning, Flames coach Mario Marinica said his technical panel will use the 2022 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup to build a strong team ahead of the CHAN and Afcon qualifiers.
“We have not had smooth preparations as we never had a full camp because of the Super League games and this has obviously affected our coordination in terms of imparting the fast and very fast football in the boys. However, we accepted the situation knowing that the tournament is not on FIFA window so we have worked with the players according to their availability and so far so good, we are all set for Cosafa.
“We have had chances to assess how our opponents play and we will approach each match as it is so that we get results. We might have different targets with the rest of the teams but we want to use the Cosafa Cup to build a stronger squad that attack more, create goal scoring opportunities as well as denying scoring chances for our opponents,” he said.
Malawi will start the 2022 Hollywoodbets Cosafa Cup campaign with a match against Lesotho on July 6 before facing Eswatini two days later. Their last group stage match will be against Mauritius on July 10.
Follow us on Twitter:
