Bonne Makes Himself Available For Warriors Upcoming Fixtures
In-form Queens Park Rangers forward on loan to Ipswich Town, Macauley Bonne has made himself available for selection in the upcoming final world cup qualifiers group matches against South Africa and Ethiopia next month.
The 25-year-old England-born forward who has been accused to have divided loyalty on Zimbabwe Warriors after making repeated excuses to join camp in the previous call ups, is in contact with Warriors manager Wellington Mpandare to make his availability known after overlooked in the last Warriors assignments due to the ‘misunderstanding’.
According to soca263 sources, the red hot forward has already ‘cleared his case’ with the Warriors technical team and is available for selection against South Africa and Ethiopia on the 11th and 14th November respectively.
Bonne was ‘blacklisted’ from the national team during Zdravko Logarusici’s tenure after the no nonsense Croat mistook the forward’s repeated excuses to join the Warriors as lack of commitment.
The former Colchester and Leyton Orient hotshot made two appearances for Zimbabwe in friendlies against Lesotho and Namibia in 2017 and was in line for his Zimbabwe Warriors debut at the 2019 Africa cup of nations finals, but failed because he did not have a Zimbabwean passport.
After acquiring a passport, Bonne’s Warriors official debut was further derailed after pulling out of the Afcon qualifier against Botswana and Zambia due to medical reasons, prompting many to start doubting his Warriors commitment.
However, Bonne was later cleared to play, but under conditions that he was to keep on having regular heart screens at his club and was advised against traveling making himself unavailable for the Africa cup of nations qualifier against Algeria.
This did not go down well with newly appointed coach Zdravko Logarusici who thought the England-born forward did not have interest to play for Zimbabwe.
After his recent omission from the world cup qualifiers against Ghana, there was a public outcry for the England based forward to be returned to squad after a storming start in the English League one where he is on loan from QPR, scoring ten goals in 12 appearances so far this season therefore forcing the technical team to reconsider their stance against Bonne.
Warriors manager Wellington Mpandare has promised to re-engage the player concerning his availability after newly appointed caretaker coach Norman Mapeza indicated that he needs Bonne in his squad.
Bonne is a player that every other Warriors coach had wanted to have in his team. Callisto Pasuwa tried to woo him, but he did not succeed in getting him, ” said Mpandare
Now that we have a new coach. If Mapeza indicates he want him, then the ball again is in the players court, ” adds Mpandare.
The Warriors who were booted out of the world cup qualifiers after accumulating only a point from four games plans to use the remaining matches to prepare for the Africa cup of nations finals in Cameroon next year.