It was his family roots which are deeply embedded in the Eastern Cape which saw him return there late last month for the funeral of his mother, who had a long protracted battle with cancer, finally succumbed and bowed out from the world.

Co-inciding with the death of his mother was The Amakhosi’s opening league game of the 2006 – 2007 season against his former club SuperSport United. As Mayo was granted compassionate leave by the club he was allowed to stay on with his three sisters in the Eastern Cape to complete mourning rituals for his mom.

Mayo watched on television as Chiefs drew their opening game of the season, what further caught Mayo’s attention was the fact that The Amakhosi were caught flat footed in defence on a number of occasions in the encounter with SuperSport.

“While I was watching the game I knew that I should have been there, you do realize sometime in life that you have to prioritize and I had to be with my sisters, as our family is a very close one and through out my life my mother and sisters guided me through many difficult periods in my life. It was only fair that a time like this as the elder of the household I be there for my family members” said the Chiefs defender.

Having returned just over a week ago to training, Mayo has not needed time to catch up with the rest of the team as he has maintained the same level of fitness he did when he went on leave around two weeks ago. Ernst Middendorp afforded him the perfect opportunity to find form and fitness when he gave Mayo 90 minutes of game time in a friendly game against Bidvest Wits University on Friday.

Mayo says of his fitness ahead of this weekend's league encounter with Benoni Premier United on the weekend “I felt great after the practise game with Wits on Friday, I was not tired or out of breath and I could cope with the pace of the game without any difficulty which for me was a wonderful sign looking ahead to this Sunday’s game with Benoni United”.

With Chiefs taking on ‘The Rabbits’ as Benoni United are otherwise known Mayo is in a positive frame of mind ahead of the game with the PSL newcomers, and believes that with The Amakhosi’s experience in the PSL anything less than three points will be deemed as a disaster for Chiefs.

“I know that Benoni sprung a surprise against Ajax in their first game of the season but we need to be realistic about things for us a draw or a loss is inconceivable because it is games like these against the so called lesser teams that we need to win and win comfortably”.

As Chiefs go in search of their first victory of the season on Sunday Mayo is aiming to play a big part in Sunday’s game is hoping to honour his late mother with an Amakhosi victory, “I owe a lot in my life to my mother and the first thing I am going to do is help the team win the game on Sunday and dedicate the first game in my life without my mother being in the world to her memory”.

The star defender is hopeful that Chiefs will be run a tighter shift in defence against Benoni than they did in the SuperSport game a fortnight ago as he commented “we worked on certain aspects of our defence and in particular we did look as where we fell short against SuperSport. Let me assure the fans that Benoni United will find it tough to break down our defence on Sunday. Over the past couple of seasons our defence has been the strongest part of our game and what happened against SuperSport can only be described as a freak accident”.

Ernst Middendorp will be particularly pleased to have Patrick Mayo available for selection as he will look to experienced players such as that of Mayo, Shaun Bartlett and Captain Cyril Nzama to take advantage of the PSL novices. As Mayo has made it clear it will not be an easy outing but The Amakhosi should be fancied to take all three points when they clash with Benoni Premier United at the Germiston Stadium on Sunday.