Boost for Highlanders
HIGHLANDERS have received a major boost ahead of local football resumption next month with news that defender Peter Muduhwa has cut short his loan stay at Tanzanian club Simba SC, and is heading back home.
Muduhwa signed a six-month loan contract with the well-resourced club at the end of January to feature for them in the ongoing Caf Champions League campaign.
Simba had an option to sign him permanently if he had impressed, but it appears he failed to make the grade.
Five games into the campaign, he has not featured in the continental’s premier club competition.
The player’s handlers yesterday said they had decided to recall him and find him other suitors.
“The boy has not played a game yet for Simba SC who wanted him to play for them in the Caf Champions League. What’s the point of him staying there when he was only registered for the Caf Champions League? He is coming back to Highlanders,” his manager Gibson Mahachi said.
Simba SC signed Muduhwa to bolster their squad for the Caf Champions League, where they are currently doing pretty well.
They are unbeaten in Group A, where they are leading the standings in the lucrative group stages with four wins and a draw.
The group includes Egyptian giants Al Ahly, whom they managed to beat last month.
Muduhwa was snapped up after his impressive show for the Warriors at the African Nations Championships finals in Cameroon in January. He has 18 months left on his contract with Highlanders.
Mahachi said while Muduhwa would return to Highlanders, he was trying to find him another suitor outside the country.
“We are in the middle of discussions for a mutual termination of his contract with Simba SC. There is something that we are working on for Muduhwa, but I can’t disclose that for now,” Mahachi said.
Reports suggest that Zambian side Nkana, coached by former Highlanders mentor Kelvin Kaindu, and Mozambican side UD Songo, are all interested in his signature.
Simba are home to Warriors’ striker Perfect Chikwende, but he is ineligible to play for them in the Caf Champions League since he previously featured for former club FC Platinum in the current campaign.
The return of Muduhwa will excite Highlanders head coach Mandla Mpofu who had admitted that he was finding it difficult to replace the defender in the squad.