Plymouth Argyle defender Brendan Galloway not joining up with Zimbabwe after all

By plymouthherald.co.uk

Plymouth Argyle defender Brendan Galloway is ‘not quite ready’ to join up with the Zimbabwe squad for their first two 2026 World Cup qualifiers according to director of football Neil Dewsnip.

Galloway has resumed training with the rest of the Pilgrims’ squad after recovering from long-term injury but has not played a game yet or been included in a matchday squad. The 27-year-old was named in a provisional 28-strong Zimbabwe for their Group C games against Rwanda on Wednesday and Nigeria on Sunday.

However, that has now been cut down to 23 players and Galloway is not among them. Instead, he will continue working away on his fitness with Argyle during the latest two-week international break, which began today.

Dewsnip told Plymouth Live: “Truth be known he’s not quite ready. Schuey (manager Steven Schumacher) has not put him back in our squad yet.”

Galloway was born in Harare but moved to the UK with his family at a young age and played for England at various age groups up to under-21s.

Shortly before joining Argyle in the summer of 2021 Galloway transferred his international allegiance to Zimbabwe and he has played twice for them at senior level.

After the current international break, Zimbabwe’s next two World Cup qualifiers will not be until June 2024 when they will play Lesotho and South Africa. Galloway’s contract with the Pilgrims also expires at the end of that month.

Argyle do have two players away on international duty this week with goalkeeper Conor Hazard and striker Ben Waine joining up with Northern Ireland and New Zealand respectively.