Gabadinho Mhango says he remains in shock and disappointment over the Football Association of Malawi’s decision to withdraw the Flames from the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. In a statement from FAM released earlier in the week, it was noted the senior national team was being withdrawn from both qualifiers of the 2019 AFCON and next year’s African Nations Championships due to financial restrictions. Qualifiers for the CHAN start next month with Malawi having been drawn against Madagascar, while the AFCON qualification campaign gets underway in June with the Flames fixtured against the winner of Comoros and Mauritius' preliminary round tie, while hosts Cameroon and African giants Morocco will make up the rest of Group B.

However, Malawi's participation in those games seems to be over, coming as a big blow to Bidvest Wits' Malawian forward Mhango. “I am in shock and disappointed about this [Malawi's withdrawals],” Mhango tells KickOff.com from camp in Cape Town, where his club Wits face off against Cape Town All Stars in the Nedbank Cup last-32 this evening at Athlone Stadium [19h30]. “As [Malawi] players, we didn’t expect such to happen. This affects our international careers because we wanted to play in the qualifiers with the hope of qualifying for the finals. Some of us have never played in the AFCON finals so this would have been another chance to give it a go. "Maybe they will change their minds about this but then if it remains like this then there is nothing that we can do. So far there has been no communication from the association about this,” says Mhango.

Mhango is one of the key players for Malawi at the moment and enjoying his football at Wits after arriving from Bloemfontein Celtic via Golden Arrows at the beginning of the season. Malawi has also been without a coach since last year, with Burundian trainer Ramadhan Nsanzurwino having been in charge for a single game following the sacking of Ernest Mtawali. Should FAM stick to both decisions prior to the March 31 and April 30 deadlines for AFCON and CHAN respectively, they face a hefty fine from CAF. With the Flames already out of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, Mhango will have to wait until the 2021 AFCON qualifiers, which start midway through 2019, before he is again to taste international football.