The coach has been preparing his charges for almost two weeks ahead of the biennial tournament scheduled for April this year
Uganda national football team head coach Johnathan McKinstry hopes Caf will not cancel the upcoming African Nations Championship (Chan) scheduled to be hosted in Cameroon.
With the spread of coronavirus, Caf was forced to postpone the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers which were slated for between March 25 and 31 but McKinstry hopes Chan will go on.
The biennial tournament, meant for only home-based players, has been scheduled to start in Cameroon from April 4 to 25 and the Cranes have been holding their residential training camps at Gems International School and at the StarTimes Stadium in Lugogo.
“Hopefully the tournament [Chan] goes on as planned, but again every day we go onto the pitch and train we are improving something with this group, because we are not preparing them for Chan alone, but also for the senior team and we want them to move on to the senior A-team,” McKinstry told Football256.
“We can only control certain things, and therefore we shall focus on the things we can control. So, for me what we can control is how our players work and their enthusiasm about their job.”
McKinstry explained the importance of their Chan preparation and training which they have been undertaking for almost the last two weeks since he named his provisional squad on February 27.
“So, all these preparations are helpful in one way or the other, but as of now as far as I am concerned, we are playing Rwanda on April 6, and that’s what we are looking forward to,” stated the Northern Irish coach.
With Afcon qualifiers postponed, McKinstry insists their main aim is to qualify for the next competition.
“The challenge now is to make sure that we remain positive and have a clear plan for when the games are scheduled to be played again because the objective remains qualification for a third consecutive Afcon tournament,” he concluded.
Uganda are expected to host a tri-nations tournament involving Zambia and Mali which will start on March 17 to 21 at Mandela National Stadium in Namboole.
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