Posted in News on Apr 20, 2007.
The Chiefs coach has already had to make contingency plans as he seems destined to be with out at least one or both of his front men in Kaizer Motaung Junior and Shaun Bartlett. Kaizer Junior has not yet fully recovered from an ankle injury he picked up at the start of the month during Chiefs 1-1 draw with Moroka Swallows.
Motaung’s striking partner Shaun Bartlett was knocked over during a training session in midweek and has had to miss one training session this week, a final decision on Bartlett’s availability for Sunday’s game will be made some time on Saturday. Chiefs physiotherapist David Milner explains further “Shaun got a knock during training in the week, at this stage I would say that it looks as though he should be okay to face Santos, we will know for sure after training on Saturday morning”.
In the mean time Amakhosi captain Cyril Nzama has done damage to his hamstring and along with Kaizer Junior he will not be making the trip to Port Elizabeth, “Cyril has been laid low with a hamstring injury which he too picked in training about a week ago” added Milner on the Chiefs captains’ injury.
The Amakhosi physiotherapist continued on by saying “the injury is quiet serious we have not put any time frame as to when he could return to training or will be available for games. At the moment Cyril is in a lot of pain and he is finding it hard to be mobile, we have started him with some rehabilitation work in the gym and that seems to be progress along well”.
Midfielder Gert Schalkwyk rounds off the week’s injury concerns the midfield strong man is in the process of recovering from an abdominal muscle strain, which he pulled during a recent training session.
Commenting on Gert’s injury and his imminent return to action Milner added, “Gert has missed out on training for a week or so as a result of his abdominal muscle strain, he did start with some light work on the training ground on Thursday morning. We do expect him to have made a full recovery by the end of the weekend and he should resume full training by Monday, we are hopeful that he will be available for the last three games of the season”.
The prospect of having to travel to an away game with out a number of key players would like a daunting prospect for any team, Chiefs coach Kosta Papic is not altogether phased by the fact that he will have to do some major reshuffling to his pack for Sunday’s game.
Papic is confident that the injuries and the suspension to Tinashe Nengomasha will not adversely affect his team but will work in reverse, as it presents a number of fringe players with an opportunity to make a strong case for their inclusion in the starting eleven for the rest of the season.
