Four dropped from Cranes' CECAFA squad

FOOTBALL 

CECAFA Senior Challenge Cup

Saturday

At Lugogo

Djibouti v Somalia

Uganda V Burundi

Sunday

Zanzibar v Sudan

Kenya v Tanzania

Striker Steven Mukwala is among the four players dropped from the Uganda Cranes team preparing for the CECAFA Senior challenge cup team that gets underway on Saturday up to  December 19 at Lugogo.

Mukwala who is on loan from Vipers and currently leads the scoring chart in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League with ten goals was released alongside Jack Komakech, Hassan Ssenyonjo, and Ivan Sserubiri.

 Cranes who are currently camped at Paradise Hotel in Kisaasi, Ntinda will be trimmed to the final squad of 20 players by the end of Thursday.

Following the withdrawal of Ethiopia and guest team DR Congo from the competition, nine teams have been placed in two groups.

Hosts Uganda is in Group A with Burundi, Eritrea, Somalia, and Djibouti while Group B is comprised of Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, and Zanzibar.

Uganda will open their title hunt on Saturday against Burundi at Lugogo.

Cranes Coach Jonathan McKinstry is looking forward to using the championship in developing youngsters ahead of the 2020 Africa Nations Championship finals will be held in Cameroon in April.

 "CECAFA is a tournament we want to win but we want to use it to develop these players for the senior national team that will represent the nation in the CHAN finals, AFCON qualifiers, and the 2022 World Cup qualifiers," McKinstry explained.

Meanwhile, the U17 girls' team is also in high preparations under the stewardship of Coach Ayub Khalifah at FUFA Technical Centre in Njeru ahead of the CECAFA U-17 girls tournament that gets underway on December 9-18.