Marinica Revises Warriors Training Schedule

Warriors coach Marian “Mario” Marinica has had to shake up the team’s camp schedule after FIFA, in consultation with CAF, announced that clubs will only be required to release players for AFCON on Monday, 15 December 2025.

Marinica has been working since Sunday with most of the locally based players, plus a few early arrivals from abroad.

Originally, clubs were meant to release players on 8 December, but that date has now been pushed back by a week, giving clubs, especially those in Europe, more time with their players during the busy festive fixtures.

FIFA said the change was made “in the spirit of solidarity” with CAF, and to follow the same release principles used for the 2022 World Cup.

The decision has forced Marinica to revise his plans. The current camp will break for two days starting Saturday, before the squad reconvenes on Monday, when a send-off dinner is expected to be held.

ZIFA confirmed the updated camp dates in a statement issued on Thursday. ZIFA said:

“The plans which were in place have been slightly altered. The camp was supposed to break on Friday (today) before resuming with all the players expected to join in on Sunday.

“But with the new player release regulations now in place, the team will break camp on Saturday (tomorrow) and resume on Monday.

“Meanwhile, everything is going on well so far with most of the players called up training well.

“We will provide more information as we go, but we can tell you that every player in camp will return on Monday.

“This will give the technical team more time with the players to further assess them and align them with their playing style.”

Several local players have already been ruled out of the squad due to injuries. Among those affected are Tymon Machope, Emmanuel Jalai, Xolani Ndlovu, Andrew Mbeba, Junior Makunike, and Donovan Bernard.

The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) will take place in Morocco from 21 December 2025 to 18 January 2026.

Zimbabwe has been drawn in Group B alongside neighbours South Africa, Angola, and seven-time champions Egypt.

More: The Herald