Castle Lager Premier Soccer League reigning champions, FC Platinum, are said to be facing a player crisis after a significant number of their players ran out of contracts at the end of June.
On Saturday, the club was only able to name 13 players for the match against Manica Diamonds. There were only two players on the bench, Devon Chafa and goalkeeper Petros Mhari.
A player who spoke on the condition that his identity is not revealed said that the club was caught off guard by the development. Said the player:
There is nothing that they could not raise the full complement because of injuries. We know what the club does when they are caught off guard, they manufacture stories and send to friendly media outlets to try and diffuse the situation.
They did the same on the strike issue and tiff between coach Norman Mapeza and chairman Evans Mthombeni.
Ali Sadiki is not injured, he is out of contract, William Sitima is out of contract, Elvis and Kevin Moyo just sneaked out of the country for trials at Chippa United in South Africa.
Petros Mhari could have gone for trials at Bloemfontein Celtics but delayed for the Manica Diamonds match as there was a crisis.
Devon Chafa actually had to brave the injury also to save the situation but was carrying an injury. Godknows Murwira is in Harare trying to push for a move to Dynamos while Mkhokeli Dube quit and went to the United States. Lawrence Mhlanga is on suspension while Raphael Muduviwa is on a lengthy lay off due to injury.