Malawi National Football Team Coach Kalisto Pasuwa is confident that his charges can cope with the absence of striker Gabadinho Mhango and defender Charles Petro, who have been ruled out of the Flames’ World Cup Qualifier against Tunisia on Monday.
The Flames were dealt a blow after the duo was ruled out of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Tunisia due to injury.
The Flames are scheduled to face Tunisia at Stade Olympique Hammad Agreb on Monday.
Mhango has a right ankle sprain whereas Petro has a groin injury.
This could be a big blow to the Flames, who are looking to bounce back from the 1-0 home defeat suffered at the hands of Namibia on Thursday.
However, Pasuwa said it was possible to replace pair.
“Yes, we have [players] who can replace Gaba,” he said.
Pasuwa refused to throw in the towel in the qualification race.
“We are playing to win. We cannot say that everything is gone and that we are playing for the sake of it. When we go out there as coaches or players, we go to look for a win, hence you saw us playing [football]. There are three results in football. Unfortunately, we got one of the results today; a loss,” he said.
Apart from Mhango and Petro, Wongani Lungu, Chawanangwa Gumbo and Chikumbutso Salima have been dropped for the Tunisia trip.
Following Mhango’s injury, striker Ephraim Kondowe has made the trip to Tunisia.
Meanwhile, the Flames flew out of the country for Tunisia Friday.
Pasuwa said the Flames gave Namibia too much respect on Thursday.
Despite the loss to Namibia, the Flames are still fourth in Group H with six points from five matches.
Tunisia lead the group with 13 points from the same number of matches whereas Namibia are second with 11 points.
Liberia are third with seven points.
Meanwhile, sports analyst Parry Chinyama has said the Flames were a pale shadow of themselves against Namibia.
“The performance [of the team] was not good. If they play like that against Tunisia, we should be worried. The majority of the players did not tick,” Chinyama said.
The defeat to Namibia was Flames’ third loss in the qualifiers.
This means the Flames have reduced their chances of qualifying for next year’s World Cup finals.
Malawi has never qualified for the World Cup finals but has been to the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) finals thrice—in 1984, 2010 and 2021.
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