Brighton's Enock Mwepu and Leicester City's Patson Daka will not be part of Zambia's team that will take on Tunisia in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday at the Levy Mwanawasa Stadium in Ndola.
Both stars featured as Chipolopolo defeated Mauritania 2-1 in their opening qualifying fixture on Friday and they have now left for England. Their absence from the Zambian team was occasioned by Premier League's announcement that they would not exempt players from the 10-day quarantine if they traveled to Covid-19 red zones and Zambia is classified as such.
"I think we have talked a lot with the guys, and we all knew we were not going to be part of the team to play Tunisia in Zambia, so everyone was ready," Daka told FAZ media .
"We all knew that we had to utilize this [Mauritania] game so that we could make sure that we had a platform to give the guys as they go to play at home."
But it is a very sad feeling for me and Enock [Mwepu] because we won’t be part of this amazing group, but at the end of the day, we know the team is bigger than the players.
"We have got a lot of quality players, no one is better than the other in this team that is what is very important."
"We treat each other equally and we know anyone can deliver at any given time so we believe in the guys who have remained they will do the required job and they have our support."
After the Mauritania victory, Leicester City's star has called on their fans to keep supporting the national team as they fight to grab a World Cup ticket to Qatar.
"We say they should continue to believe and supporting us, they are the ones who keep us going. We appreciate their support," he added.
"It gives us a lot of confidence and we just pray that everything works out next week as we play Tunisia and that this journey that we have begun and will continue to be great as we are hoping for the World Cup qualification."
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