US-based Scorchers red-hot forward Temwa Chawinga has been ruled out of the international friendly match against Morocco set for June 19 in Casablanca, Morocco due to club commitments.
Scorchers head coach Lovemore Fazili on Monday named a 24-member squad, but the Kansas City Current attacker is not among them.
Fazili in an interview yesterday confirmed the unavailability of US National Women’s Super League joint top-goal scorer.
“Temwa is not available for the friendly due to club commitments since the match is not on a Fifa calendar date,” he said.
Fazili has included five foreign-based players, namely Temwa’s France-based sister Tabitha, 2022 Cosafa under-17 girls’ championship top scorer Rose Kabzere (Montpellier-France), attackers Vanessa Chikupila and Bernadette Mkandawire of Kazakhstan’s Biik Kazygurt and Sabina Thom who is set to join Lanchkhuti of Georgia.
Leticia Chinyamula (Ascent Academy) and Asimenye Simwaka (MDF Lioness) return to the squad after missing the four friendly matches.
Chinyamula was with the Under-20 national football team, which played Central Africa Republic in Fifa Under-20 World Cup while Simwaka, who is also an athlete, opted for the National Cross-Country.
The squad also has new faces, namely Ascent Academy trio of Fatima Ali, Maureen Kenneth and Victoria Mkwala.
Ali, Kabzere, Kenneth and Mkwala were also part of the Under-20 national team alongside Olivia Phekani, Faith Chimzimu and goalkeeper Ireen Sibande.
Football Association of Malawi in a statement said the team is expected to leave for Casablanca on June 15.
This will be a fifth international friendly for the Scorchers in 2025.
In March, the Scorchers played back-to-back international friendly matches against Zambia’s Copper Queens, losing the first 2-0 before recovering to stun their hosts 3-2 in Lusaka.
They then lost twice (3-0, 2-1) to South Africa’s Banyana Banyana in two strength testing matches in Johannesburg.
Temwa missed all the four matches.
The Scorchers are preparing for the 2026 Wafcon qualifiers second round tie against Angola in October.
Malawi qualified for the second round after their opponent Congo Brazzaville withdrew from the competition.
Angola, on the other hand, knocked out Zimbabwe 5-4 in post-match penalties following a 3-3 tie in a two-legged qualifier
