Coaches weed Hippos team of aged players

By Swalley Kenyi

February 28

International friendly

Rwanda v Uganda

COACHES Paul Nkata and Abdallah Mubiru yesterday took time to scrutinize ages of players summoned for the U-20 team -the Hippos and ended up weeding out Express striker Julius Ogwang and Robert Wulube.

The coaches have promised to examine more of the players to ensure that only those who fall in the U-20 age bracket travel for the friendly game with Rwanda in Kigali on Saturday.

In 2010 CAF disqualified Uganda from the Africa Under-17 Championships after a 3-1 aggregate win over Zambia in the preliminary round.

Despite poor turn up of players on the first day of training at Nakivubo on Tuesday, 23 save for Bunamwaya players, who are on a tour of Sudan were absent.

"We are building a team for the future. That means we need to be realistic and training the right age group for U-20," Nkata said yesterday.

The coaches are also investigating ages of Maroons striker George Abege and Bunamwaya midfielder Nicholas Wadada.

"We don't want a repeat of disqualification like it was the case before," Nkata added. The team leaves for Kigali by road on Sunday.