By Steve Vickers BBC Sport, Harare

Zimbabwe FA's Edgar Rogers explained the Zambia cancellation

Zimbabwe's African Cup of Nations preparations have taken yet another knock with the cancellation of a friendly match against Zambia that was due to take place on Sunday in Harare.

Although financial constraints appear to have played a part in the cancellation, the reason given by the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) for calling the game off is that they were worried about players picking up injuries.

"The coaching department was worried about players getting injured so close to the start of the Cup of Nations," said Zifa chief executive Edgar Rogers.

However a friendly for the 18 January date had been planned for a long time, with Tunisia originally lined up to play the Warriors.

Alternative plans were then made for a match against Kenya in Harare but when negotiations fell through, the game against Zambia was planned.

The Zambians had been demanding appearance fees of US$300 per player and US$500 for officials, plus half the gate takings from the match.

Rogers said that Zifa was only willing to pay half of the requested appearance fees, but the body then decided to call the match off.

The Warriors will now travel to Tunisia on Monday having played just two friendlies in a five-week-long training camp, involving one against Botswana in December and a controversial game against El Salvador this month.

The second match was of limited value as the El Salvador team is believed to have been a select side posing as the national team.

And to make matters worse, only two of the 12 foreign-based players in the squad have featured in the warm-up games.