Joash Onyango out of Pirates' Sunday clash

Kenyan international Joash Onyango, who turns out for Simba SC in Tanzania will miss his side’s CAF Confederation Cup quarter-final first leg clash against Orlando Pirates due to suspension.

Simba will, on Sunday, entertain the South African giants in Dar as they seek first-leg advantage with a semifinal ticket at stake.

After exiting last season’s champions league in the quarter-final stage, Wekundu wa Msimbazi will be hoping to, at least, reach the semis of Africa’s second-tier club competition.

They will, however, have to do it without one of their star players. Onyango is serving a one-match suspension and will thus sit out of the first leg in Dar. He will, however, be available for the return leg a week later.

His suspension comes after he accumulated three yellow cards in the group stage. He picked cards against Niger’s Union Sportive de la Gendarmerie Nationale both home and away and the other against RS Berkane in Morocco.

The team will also miss star player Sado Kanuote who equally picked three cards in the group stage. The Senegalese midfielder picked cards in the same matches as Joash and will thus sit out of the first leg.

Meanwhile, Yanga have denied reports that they are interested in signing Joash. The defender is out of contract in July and with renewal talks stalling, there were reports that Yanga could pounce and sign the player from their arch-rivals but these reports have since been quashed.

“It's not true. As Yanga we have crossed that bridge, and we will not sign any player from there (Simba). There is no doubt that Onyango is a good defender but as Yanga we have other plans, we have bigger targets,” club spokesman Haji Manara said on Thursday.