From Zambia, CEOAFRICA sports desk gathered that the country’s government has pardoned three national team players, whose traveling passports were seized following their failure to link up with their colleagues in an international friendly encounter against Brazil.

Rainford Kalaba, Stoppila Sunzu and Nathan Sinkala, were denied an immediate return to TPMazembe in Democratic Republic of Congo, when their travelling documents were seized.

Both Kalaba and Sunzu had their documents returned to them, while Sinkala needs only to collect his from the immigration offices in Ndola.

Speaking about the issue, Rainford Kalaba expressed his gladness that the whole saga has ended, expressing his readiness to resume duty:

“I am very glad that everything has gone well... I just want to get back to work”, he said.

Confirming the pardon, Zambia’s home affairs minister, Edgar Lungu said the players have been forgiven by the state.

"We have pardoned them. Our officers have been instructed to allow them to get back to their club and continue with their careers. There won't be any further questioning because the matter is closed.

"In future, we will engage their club and the players' managers in Zambia to avoid a recurrence of what happened."

While all three players insisted they had done nothing wrong, Zambia issued warrants for their arrest last week and on Friday the players were turned back at the border as they attempted to return to their club.

The trio then endured a four-hour long interrogation on Friday evening and the questioning continued for a similar amount of time on Monday before they were asked to return on Wednesday.

The trio misses TP Mazembe’s 1-0 victory over Stade Malien of Mali in the second leg encounter of the CAF Confederations Cup.

Hopefully, they will be available when the final games get underway against CS Sfaxien of Tunisia next month.