LESOTHO Football Association (LeFA) has sought permission from the National COVID-19 Secretariat (NACOSEC) to allow Likuena to prepare for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifying games against Nigeria's Super Eagles and Leone Stars of Sierra Leone.

Likuena will host the Leone Stars at home on March 22 before meeting the Super Eagles in Nigeria on March 30.

LeFA Media Officer, Mikia Kalati said after Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro relaxed lockdown regulations last week, the mother body wrote to NACOSEC seeking approval for the senior national squad to immediately start its training sessions.

As soon as the association gets the go ahead to resume training, he said the selected players (most of whom ought to be locally based) shall be screened and tested for COVID-19 before they go to a closed camp where they will not be able to interact with their families to ensure that they stay COVID-19 free.
Kalati said the pandemic has not only affected Likuena as the rest of the world is also in a similar situation with Lesotho.

“If given the go ahead, Likuena's home-based players will resume training a month before the first game starts, since the foreign based players will only be released a week prior to the date of the match,” he said.
He noted that this time around, things will be much easier for head coach Thabo Senong to select the squad because the last Vodacom league games were played in December, which is roughly about two months ago.

This is unlike in the previous case when the team selection for national service was made eight months after the last league match.