Zanaco have chickened out of Sundays league game against bottom placed City of Lusaka.
The defending champions, who are 2nd on the table and three points behind Green Buffaloes cite the unavailability of four players who are away on Zambia duty and left on Sunday for West Africa.
Goalkeeper Toaster Nsabata,defender Ziyo Tembo including forwards Ernest Mbewe and Augustine Mulenga are in transit for the October 7 away 2018 FIFA World Cup Group B qualifier away against Nigeria.
However, the absence of these players has never been a problem for Zanaco during Zambia’s recent August engagements when the defending champions coped without them.
On August 12 when Zambia drew 2-2 away with Bafana Bafana in a 2018 CHAN qualifier, Zanaco drew 1-1 away to Mufulira Wanderers.
They followed this up with a 3-2 win over Konkola Blades on August 16 when none of their players were released from camp.
And on the day Zambia were beating Bafana 2-0 in Ndola on August 20 , Zanaco were drawing 1-1 away at Nakambala Leopards.
However, the problem is Zanaco have seemingly not recovered from the 4-0 away loss they suffered at 4th placed Nkana on September 3 that was played 24 hours after Zambia beat Algeria 3-1 in Lusaka and immidately after the game left for North Africa with their Zanaco callups.
Meanwhile,City have picked up four draws from their last 23 games despite Zanaco chickening out on them.