Former Malta coach Tom Saintfiet saw his preparations for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations being severely hampered after Gambia’s two warm-up matches were cancelled due to an increase in COVID-19 cases in their squad.
The decision came just hours before they were due to play Algeria in Doha – the other match was against Syria on Tuesday.
“Due to the unavailability of 16 of our 28-man squad our friendlies ahead of the Cup of Nations against Algeria and Syria have both been cancelled,” the Gambian Football Federation (GFF) said in a statement.
Saintfiet explained via Facebook that the swathe of absences were due to “Covid, other illness, injuries and restrictions to travel.”