The Copper Queens left for Colombia last night aboard Emirates Airline for two international friendly matches with South American side, Colombia on November 12th and 15th in Cali.
Coach Bruce Mwape says the team is ready but wants more time to assess the foreign-based players as he has not watched them much.
“We don’t want to carry passengers to the World Cup,” he said. “If the professionals[foreign-based players] are not doing well, where they are playing then we will consider other players but we are not saying we have already concluded that – we will conclude towards the tournament.”
Mwape added that some of the foreign-based players that have been away from the team for a long time might give him problems against Colombia tomorrow.
“Some of them it has taken long to play with the local players so somehow we might have a problem in our first game against Colombia but we will see how best we can do, so that they don’t have problems and I am sure they will just fit in.”
Spain based strikers Racheal Kundananji and Racheal Nachula are among the few players that are making a return to the national team after almost a year.
The squad that has already travelled to Cali will be joined by six foreign-based players while some of Green Buffaloes national team players who were participating in the 2022 CAF Womens Champions League are expected to connect directly to Colombia from Morocco.
Defender Martha Tembo has been excused from duty to mourn her mother who passed away on Wednesday while Lushomo mweemba has accompanied her and both will miss the two friendly matches.
Team captain Barbra Banda is also unavailable due to Covid 19 travel restrictions in China where she is based.
