Wolves midfielder Marshall Munetsi<\/a> was a surprise omission from their Africa Cup of Nations<\/a> squad for the tournament in Morocco<\/a> (December 21 – January 18), but expressed his support for the team despite feeling he had recovered enough from injury to contribute.<\/p>\n The squad<\/a>, announced on Thursday, included Munetsi’s Wolves teammate, Tawanda Chirewa<\/a>, but excluded former Kaizer Chiefs<\/a> and Mamelodi Sundowns<\/a> star Khama Billiat – reportedly for personal reasons<\/a>.<\/p>\n “This one hurts, as representing the Warriors has always been a dream, and wearing our colours is the greatest honour of my career. AFCON would have even been more significant,” Munetsi wrote in a post on social media.<\/p>\n “I had an injury recently, but my club, Wolves, communicated with the association that I was recovering well and even offered medical support to ensure that I could participate at the AFCON. Unfortunately, I received no follow-up communication, and decisions were made without clarity-speculation which wasn’t the case.<\/p>\n “While I’m hurt, my unwavering support for the national team remains strong . I respect the coach’s decisions and stand behind the boys wholeheartedly. I will always be ready to defend the nation I love. Go Warriors, go!”<\/p>\n Marian Marinica recently took over as the Warriors’ head coach following their unsuccessful FIFA World Cup<\/a> qualifying campaign concluded under Michael Nees. Zimbabwe picked up some impressive results – notably a draw to Bafana Bafana – but ultimately finished their Group C campaign without a win.<\/p>\n There has been ongoing discontent within the country at decision-making affecting its football. Recently, FIFA banned Zimbabwe in February 2022 after the government-appointed Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) suspended the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA). The following year, the ban was lifted.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Zimbabwe’s squad contains some notable players. Apart from Wolves winger Chirewa, they have two players capable of producing high-level performances at left-back in Mamelodi Sundowns’ Divine Lunga<\/a> and FC Cincinnati<\/a>‘s Teenage Hadebe<\/a> – who might be utilised elsewhere along the defensive line.<\/p>\n Luton Town midfielder Marvelous Nakamba<\/a> makes the cut, with former Kaizer Chiefs star Knowledge Musona likely to play an important role in bossing proceedings in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n Zimbabwe are in Group B for the AFCON along with South Africa<\/a>, Angola<\/a> and Egypt<\/a>. They will take on Egypt on December 22 before facing Angola on Boxing Day and neighbours Bafana Bafana on December 29.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonard Solms CloseJack of all sporting trades. Author of my 11-year-old self’s fantasy story about his road to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[106],"class_list":{"0":"post-2852","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zimbabwe","8":"tag-zimbabwe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Wolves’ Marshall Munetsi was not named in Zimbabwe’s AFCON squad due to apparent injury, though the player says he is recovered enough to go to Morocco.\u00a0Brett Patzke – WWFC\/Wolves via Getty Images<\/p>\n