CAPS United midfielder, Ronald ‘Rooney’ Chitiyo, has pulled out of the 2017 African Nations Championships (CHAN) qualifiers and will be replaced by Dynamos attacker, Denver Mukamba.

The Warriors play the first leg of the qualifiers against Namibia away on Sunday with the return fixture set to be played in Harare the following week. The tournament will be held in Kenya next year.

The 25-year-old former Harare City attacker did not report for training this morning due to an emergency family problem which occurred yesterday evening.

Speaking  at a Warriors training session at Yadah hotel this morning, Warriors coach, Sunday Chidzambwa, confirmed Chitiyo’s replacement.

“Yes, Ronald Chitiyo has pulled out of the squad because his father collapsed last night. His father is critically ill, so he’s attending to his father’s illness. So we had to call in a replacement which we thought of drafting in, Denver Mukamba,” he said.

Chidzambwa, who recently led the Warriors to their fifth Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA) Castle Cup title in South Africa, said preparations for the CHAN 2017 qualifiers, which include squad assessment, have generally not gotten off smoothly.

“I think our preparations are not as smooth as we thought, but however, we have managed to have a training session this morning, and we hope to have another one in the afternoon.

“We are still waiting for one player, who is Divine Lunga, who has replaced Honest Moyo, who has gone for trials in South Africa. So we just hope and pray that in the afternoon we’ll have a full squad, then play a game for about an hour amongst ourselves and take it up from there,” he added.