The Zambia National Soccer team technical bench admits that it faces a serious prospect of losing key players for the 2018 CHAN tournament in Kenya.

Zambia beat Bafana Bafana 2-0 August 19 to qualify 4-2 on aggregate for the Kenya finals to be held from January 12 to February 4.

But qualification for Zambia, who sailed through the qualifiers unbeaten with three wins and a draw, may just come at a cost with the likelihood of some key players moving abroad.

CHAN is a second tier AFCON tournament exclusively for players campaigning in their domestic leagues.

“The next step now is to prepare the team effectively for the tournament. The goodness is at least we now have enough time to prepare the team between now and January which is good.

“But the other thing is that, of late, any player that is outstanding in Zambia we are losing them especially the strikers. So that is the only worry that we have. What we are trying to see is if we can have the same team then it would be a plus for us.”

The CHAN team has already lost striker Brian Mwila who was ineligible before the final round tie against Bafana following his transfer from Green Buffaloes to Platinum Stars of South Africa.

Mwila scored two goals in the CHAN qualifiers in Zambia’s 4-0 away and 3-0 home wins over Swaziland in July.

And now, Mwila could be joined by Justin Shonga who scored a brace in Saturday’s 2-0 home win over Bafana at Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola to take his CHAN qualifying tally to three goals.

Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa are believed to be the Nkwazi striker’s’ suitors by Christmas and that could just leave Zambia threadbare for the Kenya tournament without a potent striker.

Shonga and Mwila are Zambia’s top two strikers in 2017 with 6 and 5 goals respectively that they have scored between June to date.