Maqonda Ndlovu
Brave Warriors head coach Collin Benjamin says the first week of preparations for the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers has seen several key players drop out of the training sessions as a result of injuries.
Speaking to New Era Sport yesterday at the Namibia Football Association (NFA) Technical Centre, Benjamin said Blue Waters red-hot striker Erastus Kulula had picked up a knee injury, which will keep him out for the rest of this week, while Ronald Ketjijere, Edmund Kambanda, and Devin Somseb are still struggling to recover.
“The medical team is working on them. We will assess them to see how much time they need to recover. We will release them today so that they can go to their club for Premier League games over the weekend but we will assess them on Monday,” Benjamin said.
Besides the injuries, Benjamin has had to release Leevi Alfeus for disciplinary reasons.
This comes after the Eeshoke Chula Chula player failed to report for training on time without a valid reason.
Defender Kennedy Amutenya remains suspended indefinitely in Botswana, meaning he is losing the much-needed fitness required for the two matches.
Matchdays one and two are scheduled to take place from 11 to 21 November 2023.
When quizzed about the opponents whom the Brave Warriors will play away from home (Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe), the former Hamburg coach said Guinea has a lot of Spanish influence and is a very organised team that plays very good football.
Benjamin added that Sao Tome and Principe is a physical African team, but Namibia just needs to do their homework properly and plan well for them.
“We are trying to get all the players together, which is worrisome for us now as most of our foreign-based players are playing on the 12th of November, and we are flying out on the 13th of November to Malabo while we play on the 15th of November. Because there are no direct flights, we may end up arriving on match day in Equatorial Guinea,” Benjamin said.
He said these are challenges for international teams, but as a team, they need to pass them and be in the right mindset to get maximum points in these matches. Benjamin added that they may not be able to train as a team before playing the first match.
“These two matches are twofold, and we are taking them very seriously. We are looking at using them as training matches for the Africa Cup of Nations. They will give us the much-needed good-preparation matches. We called this team to see if we could play X with Y. Can Z go easy with U or V?” Benjamin said.
He said they are targeting between three and four points in the two matches, as players in the squad will be fighting for places to go to Afcon.
Namibia is in Group H with Tunisia, Equatorial Guinea, Malawi, Liberia, and Sao Tome and Principe.