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Billiat's club and country row continues

Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns team manager Peter Ndlovu says Khama Billiat was not released for international duty with Zimbabwe due to injury, and denied there were other reasons for his unavailability.

Reports suggested that Ndlovu, a former Warriors playing legend, had stopped Billiat from joining up with the squad to face Liberia in an Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier on Sunday due to ZIFA sending the player travel arrangements directly, and not to the club.

However, Ndlovu has denied the accusation and revealed he has evidence to show that the forward has been out injured for some time.

"The first thing is, I would like to tell you that Khama is here (in Zimbabwe). People were saying he is not coming. As you know, Khama is injured," he told Newsday.

"I have his medical history with me. I have everything with me.

"Just to give you a background of the old Zimbabwe set-up with Sundowns, it's a norm, when a player is called up, we request for travel arrangements so that we know where our player is and how we can arrange and facilitate so that he comes back as quickly as he can.

"So Zifa did not send the travel arrangements to us, they sent the information to the player. That is the reality and true story. We acknowledged the call-up and said we need the itinerary to go with it.

"At the same time, we sent them the medical history. Khama has not been training for five weeks at Sundowns."

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