When Siyabonga Nkosi popped up to score Chiefs' first goal of the 2006 SAA Supa8 Competition, back in August against Golden Arrows many people watching that game would have been saying to themselves that they have seen this all before somewhere.

The reason for such utterances would be simple, as Nkosi was the driving force behind Bloemfontein Celtics run and eventual triumph in the 2005 SAA Supa8 Tournament. As a result of some sterling performances with Celtic which included a man of the match performance, against The Amakhosi in Celtic’s opening game of the 2005 SAA Supa8 Cup. He impressed all and sundry and was thus rewarded for his individual brilliance, with the player of the tournament award at the end of the 2005 SAA Sup8 Tournament.

With his man of the match performance against Golden Arrows, which included him scoring on his official debut for Chiefs many felt that Siyabonga had continued in the SAA Supa8 from where he had left off last year.

After Arrows Chiefs bundled arch rivals Moroka Swallows out of the cup at the semi final stage, the dream of winning a second Supa8 winners medal for Siyabonga Nkosi was close to becoming a reality. While a Chiefs victory on Saturday could well give Siyabonga his second SAA Supa8 winner’s medal two years in succession, he will be unable to play any part in the match.

Even though the highly gifted midfielder travelled with the rest of his team mates to Durban on Wednesday, he does so knowing that he will be resigned to a role as a spectator on Saturday. Nkosi came off the worse after a challenge with Mamelodi Sundowns player Esrom Nyandoro during a PSL game, this past Saturday and had to be stretched off the field.

Initial fears were that he could have broken his leg, but thankfully the injuries were less server, speaking to kaizerchiefs.com as he waited to board a plane at Oliver Tambo international airport. Nkosi said of his injury “when I was stretched off the field I thought of the worse case scenario possible, thankfully I came out of it okay with minor damage so to speak”.

On to the issue of having to miss out on Saturday’s Cup Final as a result of the injury Nkosi said “getting on the plane going to Durban, with the knowledge that I won’t play any part in the final is really frustrating. Any players relishes the opportunity to play in cup finals and be there when the guys lift the trophy at the end, these are the kind of things you live for so having to miss the game is not something I would have liked to do”.

Siyabonga though does believe that his team mates have the ability and experience to come good on Saturday evening in the Cup Final when he said “I am confident that on Sunday when we fly back to Johannesburg. It will be with the SAA Supa8 trophy we have a number of players the likes of Thabo Mooki, Arthur Zwane, Cyril Nzama, Shaun Bartlett and Rowen Fernandez who are all experienced and wise enough to win the game for us”.

On the small matter of having to concede the player of the tournament accolade he collected when he won the SAA Supa8 trophy with Celtic last year, Nkosi quipped “not been able to play on Saturday means that someone else will win the individual award for player of the tournament. To me winning individual awards is nice but not overly important helping the team to be successful is, having said that I do feel that the performances of a number of players in our team through out the SAA Supa8 having been world class. If any one of Kaizer Motaung Junior, Scara Ngobese, Tinashe Nengomasha or Derrick Spencer collected the honour I would feel that they thoroughly deserved it”.

Back to the issue of his recovery from the injury he picked up against Sundowns, and while the Chiefs medical staff have indicated that he will be out of competitive action for six weeks Nkosi is hopeful of a quicker recovery saying: “I have been told that I will be out for up to six weeks, from my side what ever I can do to ensure that I can be playing again soon I will do. My focus now is to work hard and carry out the training regime that has been set to help my rehabilitation process, and go all out to ensure that when I return from this injury I come back stronger than ever”.

For now Siyabonga is content with playing the role of supporter for Saturday evening’s cup final and is confident that his force along with many thousand more Chiefs fans at the ABSA Stadium. Will help lift The Amakhosi to their second major domestic Cup title in a matter of just six months, and give Chiefs the lift needed to triumph in the remaining three trophies on offer this season.