Zambia's Chipolopolo football team defence pillar Stopilla Sunzu has finally commenced his four-day training at English Premiership side Reading. This is after weeks of derailments.

According to local media , here, Sunzu will stay with the club for four days before returning to South Africa to join the national team at the Africa Cup of Nations.

“Central defender Sunzu, 23, has been given permission by Zambia and his club TP Mazembe to temporarily leave his country’s African Cup of Nations squad, in order to train with the Royals and be assessed by our coaching staff,” local media reported, today.
.
Sunzu’s move to Reading has been protracted mainly because the Zambia national team technical bench wanted him to be part of training ahead of the Africa Cup that kicks off on Saturday.

The towering defender is expected to undergo medicals at Reading today or tomorrow before heading back to Johannesburg to join the national team.

Zambia starts the defence of the Africa Cup trophy on Monday against Ethiopia.

Meanwhile, Supersport reports that Zambia are happy with the opportunity for Sunzu to go to Reading even though he is a key component of their squad for the African Nations Cup finals.

“The Zambia national team will always be there but opportunities like this do not come around often in a player’s career so we were happy to let him go,” Kalusha was quoted as saying by Supersport.

“We have agreed with Reading, his club TP Mazembe and ourselves that he takes up this chance. Reading were quite insistent on seeing him so it is a good sign,” he told Reuters on Tuesday.

“Ultimately it is advantageous to our team to have players from clubs at the highest level.”

Kalusha said it had been agreed that Sunzu would travel to South Africa by Friday.
“He will have enough time to have recovered from the journey by the time we play our first game,” Kalusha said.

Sunzu’s long journey mirrors that of Burkina Faso winger Jonathan Pitroipa who has left his team’s Nations Cup training camp to return to France to try to help Stade Rennes reach the French League Cup final.

Pitroipa is due to fly to South Africa, where Burkina Faso have been drawn in the same group as Zambia, on Thursday after Wednesday’s semi-final against Montpellier.

Zambia, who have arrived at their base in Nelspruit, open the defence of their Nations Cup title against Ethiopia on Monday.

Sunzu played every match of Zambia’s successful run at the last finals in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon 12 months ago, converting the winning kick in the post-final penalty shootout that won his country their first Nations Cup title.
ENDS.