Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has confirmed yet another injury blow to his side as the Glamour Boys resume their DStv Premiership campaign on Sat.
Kaizer Chiefs coach Stuart Baxter has confirmed yet another injury blow to his side as the Glamour Boys resume their DStv Premiership campaign on Saturday.
According to the Englishman, attacker Lebo Manyama has again suffered a setback and had to be pulled out of training and will now undergo rehab.
“The lads coming back from Bafana Bafana are in good spirits, obviously after the good results (against Ethiopia in the back-to-back World Cup qualifiers), they are okay. And the others also representing their national teams came back fully fit, so they are all training properly,” Baxter told journalists on Thursday.
“Our injuries, unfortunately Lebo Manyama has broken down again and we pulled him from training, so he is back to the rehab programme. Samir (Nurkovic) has had an operation and obviously it’s too soon to say anything. Siya (Ngezana), Leo Castro and Dumisani Zuma are all working hard to get back – but they are nowhere near playing.”
Chiefs, who are in 12th place on the log table after six matches, host Chippa United, coincidentally coached by Gavin Hunt, who was at Naturena last season and got sacked some seven months into a three-year contract.
Both sides are equally desperate for a full haul of points to try and move up the table and ease the pressure on their demanding jobs.
With the likes of Peter Shalulile, Divine Lunga, Rushine de Reuck, Mothobi Mvala and Thabiso Kutumela travelling on the continent with their respective national teams, the challenge is to get them fresh ahead of the club's fixture this weekend, while factoring in the distance they will be covering in planes and on buses.
"The good thing is that the club is made of people who have been in this space for quite some time. Of course, reality is that it's a difficult challenge. It's a challenge of merging two very difficult programmes - the club program and the international program. And when you are populated by so many international stars, it becomes even more difficult," Mokwena told media after he and co-coach Manqoba Mngqithi were presented with the DStv Premiership Coach of the Month award for August and September.
"But Sundowns has always had international stars. We have always had players leaving every international break to represent their individual countries. Sundowns have experience with personnel like Peter Ndlovu and Yogesh Singh who work extensively with regards to getting itineraries from different football associations and then we try to merge those, not just from a logistical pperspective, but also in relation to the training dynamics because you have to look at the load of the players over the last 10 days or so. First, it's always important to get the players back injury free and then to make sure we get the players in a fresher state."
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