McCarthy explains inclusion of injured Bajaber in Harambee Stars CHAN squad
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Reading Time: 2min | Thu. 17.07.25. | 08:15
The South African legend defended the decision to include a player who is yet to pass the full fitness test with just two weeks to the start of the tournament
Harambee Stars head coach Benni McCarthy has explained why he included Mohamed Bajaber in the African Nations Championship (CHAN) squad despite fitness concerns on the Kenya Police FC star.
Bajaber reportedly picked up an injury in June prior to Kenya’s back-to-back friendly games against Chad, an injury.
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The setback saw him miss the closing stages of the concluded season, and he is yet to receive a clean bill of health.
Despite that, the former Nairobi City Stars man was named in Kenya's provisional squad for CHAN and reported to camp along with his colleagues.
Speaking to the media during Stars' training session on Wednesday, 16 July, McCarthy defended his decision to include the injured player.
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“Bajaber got injured before we went to Morocco. My decision is that he is a good, young player who broke the system and quickly developed into a powerhouse.
If you have those kinds of players, you give them every opportunity to be available for the squad because you cannot afford to lose players like that,” said McCarthy.
The former Manchester United assistant coach went ahead to reveal the recovery program that the national team is having with Bajaber, noting that it is important to have him ready for the biennial championship.
“It would be silly of me to let him train every day and lose him to injury days before CHAN, so we give him every possibility to be available.
He has a strict program with the fitness coach and physio that he works hard and starts to train with the team, but the minute training gets intense and people start kicking each other, you take him out so that we have him available for CHAN,” he added.
During the training session that was open to the media, the 22-year-old was training on his own under supervision by the fitness trainer.
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