THE Zimbabwe Junior Sables camp has been dealt a major blow following the duo of Shingi Manyarara and Huntley Masterson's withdrawal from the Barthes Trophy which kicks off this weekend.
With Zimbabwe Under-20 coach Shaun De Souza expected to announce his 28-man squad tomorrow during the captain, the two are the only two names effectively ruled out.
The Junior Sables gaffer confirmed the news citing that Manyarara failed to get his release from his French club, Racing 92, while Masterson is currently away at school at Harvard University.
"Shingi Manyarara, who has club commitments in France, won't be available for the Barthes Trophy, but we are still trying to negotiate his release for the Junior World Trophy should we qualify," said De Souza.
"Huntley Masterson, obviously with university at Harvard, will also miss out.
"Those are the two we had in our seven players we retained from last year's campaign, and remain the only player unavailable for selection," he said.
De Souza went on to confirm the availability of Edward Sigauke and Brendan Jameson, who were released from the Sharks Academy and school respectively and have since joined camp already.
The aforementioned names are part of the seven players that Zimbabwe retained from last year's Barthes Trophy-winning campaign and would have formed the core of De Souza's team this time around.
According to the fixtures released, Zimbabwe kicked off their campaign with a cagey tie against Tunisia at Harare Sports Club's Machinery Exchange on Saturday.
That match kicks off at 4pm.
The tournament proper kicks off with a match pitting East African giants Kenya against Namibia.
The matches complete the first of three tournament match days' that will see more matches on April 24 and 28.
Matchday two will see Tunisia playing Kenya in the 2pm match while regional rivals Zimbabwe and Namibia clash at 4pm.
The tournament will then wrap on April 28 when Namibia plays Tunisia at 2pm after which Zimbabwe and Kenya will wrap up proceedings at 4pm.
All matches will be played at Harare Sports Club.
All three visiting teams are expected to troop in today with the traditional captain's run scheduled for tomorrow.
