Malawi National Football Team captain Christopher John ‘CJ’ Banda has challenged his teammates to concentrate on Friday’s 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifier against Liberia.
The development comes after the team has attracted rare reviews in mainstream and social media following the absence of striker Frank Gabadinho Mhango, who reportedly missed his flight from Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday.
Flames coach Patrick Mabedi justified his stance, saying the former Orlando Pirates and Amazulu striker was dropped because he did not submit recovery sessions as advised by the technical panel.
“He [Gabadinho] was invited to join the team here Sunday and he went late to the airport and he missed his flight.
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And he was asked by the technical team to do some recovery sessions and send [them] to our physical trainer but he never did and, yet, his game was played on Saturday,” Mabedi said.
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As we went to press, Mhango was yet to respond to our questionnaire.
However, the team’s captain, CJ, opted to encourage his teammates to focus on the match and avoid social media reports.
“This is the first time to rise and show character against Liberia. This is a very important match for us. These new and young players played at Cosafa [in South Africa] and some of them did well at Afcon in Cameroon but this is a different stage.
“Qualifying for the World Cup will be an important thing to us as a team. We have never won a match in West Africa in a long time but history can be changed with the coming in of youngsters but we all need to focus,” Banda said.
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The Flames last drew against Guinea away in 2015 and, since then, they have failed to register a win against East and Western African teams.
Meanwhile, Mabedi shared Banda’s sentiments.
“We need cohesion and concentration against Liberia. We need to focus and have good coordination in all departments and avoid making mistakes,” he said.
The team arrived in Monrovia on Tuesday and trained twice yesterday.
The Flames will host Tunisia in the second match of the qualifiers at Bingu National Stadium in Lilongwe on Tuesday.
The other teams in group H are Tunisia, Namibia, Equatorial Guinea and Sao Tome and Principe.
Group winners will qualify for the World Cup while the other four overall best runners-up will play in the playoffs.
