Big Bullets have suffered a blow ahead of next week\u2019s Carlsberg Cup final against Be Forward Wanderers as sweeper Sankhani Mkandawire has been ruled out for three weeks through injury.<\/p>\n
Mkandawire, a mainstay in the Bullets\u2019 defence, was put on Plaster of Paris (POP) Tuesday after under-going an X-ray at the Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in Blantyre.<\/p>\n
\u201cSprained right ankle\u2026 needs rest for healing,\u201d reads Mkandawire\u2019s medical report from doctor, Chimphambano.<\/p>\n
Mkandawire, whose presence stabilised the Flames\u2019 defence during a 1-0 win over Uganda on July 6, could also miss the national team\u2019s away Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Swaziland this September 6.<\/p>\n
The sweeper said he sprained his ankle ligaments after landing awkwardly during a training session at the College of Medicine Sports Complex ground while preparing for a Carlsberg match against Silver Strikers\u2019 Reserve.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt seems I aggravated the injury when I played against Silver on Saturday. I am out of the final, but I can assure the Bullets\u2019 family that the rest of the defenders will play even better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Bullets\u2019 technical director, Billy Tewesa, took Mkandawire for the medical examination Tuesday and he too, refused to press the panic button.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis break will give him time to fully recover. Such things happen in football. Our opponents might start celebrating that Sankhani is out, but they could be in for a shock result. They will be celebrating their own misery,\u201d Tewesa insisted.<\/p>\n
As we went to press, Mkandawire was delivering his medical report to FAM for him to be excused from the Flames\u2019 squad tuning up for Swaziland.<\/p>\n
The Flames\u2019 central defence has of late been the weakest link. Mkandawire\u2019s injury and the inactivity in South Africa of defender Limbikani Mzava should be food for thought for Flames\u2019 coach Ernest Mtawali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Big Bullets have suffered a blow ahead of next week\u2019s Carlsberg Cup final against Be Forward Wanderers as sweeper Sankhani Mkandawire has been ruled out for three weeks through injury. Mkandawire, a mainstay in the Bullets\u2019 defence, was put on Plaster of Paris (POP) Tuesday after under-going an X-ray at the Seventh-Day Adventist Hospital in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7753,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7748\/revisions\/7753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}