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.”

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

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