Saintfiet plays down injury fears

Flames coach Tom Saintfiet has played down fears that some key players might get injured in today’s build-up match against Botswana’s Zebras and miss Saturday’s decisive 2014 World Cup qualifier in Nigeria.

Saintfiet described today’s tie just as a training game which should be less explosive than normal international encounters.

“The most important match was against Rwanda and tomorrow’s [today] game will provide me a chance to have a look at players that I have not seen such as Robert [Ng’ambi] and Foster [Namwela] and see how they could fit in the system.

“I will also use the match to put to test my tactics for the match against Nigeria and try a bit of combinations,” said the Belgian mentor.

Saintfiet also said apart from the goalkeeper, no on-field player will play for 90 minutes meaning that at least 21 players will get the feel of the action.

“So, there should be no cause for worry on the prospects of suffering injuries. What should be borne in mind is that Botswana also have a World Cup qualifier against South Africa at the weekend,” he said.

From the squad of 22 players that have been picked for the Zebras build-up match, two of them will not proceed to Calabar.

“The determination on  which players will return home will be made tomorrow [today],” he said.

Seasoned tactician and former Flames coach Yasin ‘Titch’ Osman said in any game of football—be it competitive or friendly—there is a fear of injuries.

“Football is a game of contact, so there are bound to be injuries, it could be intentional or otherwise. So, we just have to cross our fingers.

“But normally what the coaches do is that they do not feature the key players for the entire 90 minutes and if that is the approach which Saintfiet will take then there is no need to worry because players are given 72 hours to recover before playing another game,” he said.