Since signing for Chiefs back in January of this year Siphiwe Tshabalala has been unable to see much action for the Amakhosi in the latter half of last season as he arrived at Chiefs with a knee injury.

Just as the highly rated Bafana Bafana midfielder was finding his form during Chiefs pre-season preparations, he was dealt a blow when he was injured in a Vodacom Challenge match against Orlando Pirates just over a month ago.

It was Tshabalala’s first start for Chiefs in any match adding to a number of cameo appearances he made in two previous pre-season matches, as a substitute against Black Leopards and Tottenhmam Hotspurs.

The 22-year-old midfielder was in scintillating form during the Pirates match and he was on the wrong end of an over the top tackle from Joseph Kamwendo in the second half and had to be substituted. Things have gone much better for Tshabalala since then as he has made a full recovery from the injury and is targeting Chiefs' Friday evening outing against BidVest Wits in Rustenburg as his comeback game.

Wits on the mind

Through all the upheaval that he has gone through over the past eight months, Tshabalala has remained firmly focus on finding both form and fitness. Now that he has been able to achieve that the only way forward is for his star quality to shine through on the field of play.

He is looking forward to be the brightest spark on the field against Wits on Friday evening as he added “for a couple of days now the only thing that has been on my mind has been trying to make sure that I get to face Wits on Friday, because there are so many guys playing at the top of their game right now I have had to double my efforts in order to convince the coach that I am ready to play again. From my side I do feel that I can safely say that I have played my part in ensuring that I be given the opportunity to play in the Wits game”.

A good test

Furthermore, Tshabalala feels that if he can make a comeback against Wits and have a huge impact on the outcome of the game, it will be a major step for him to ensure that he can enjoy success in the remainder of the season.

As he explained “Wits have some excellent players who I really admire and feel that if coming up against Ashraf Hendricks and Neil Winstanley will be a good way for me to measure how well I have recovered from the injury”. With Chiefs and Wits having not loss this season one of the teams could lose their 100% record on Friday evening, Tshabalala says that if given the chance he will ensure that The Amakhosi take home all three points and strengthen their position as title hopefuls. He added “The advantage we have is that we play against one tough team after another which has meant that we have had to keep our effort levels up, Wits are on song having just defeated Pirates and beating them will do a lot of good for our overall title ambitions. The important thing about the opening few weeks of the season is for us not to drop any points and try and take points off every team we play, especially the ones who could be fighting for honors later on in the season”.

Fit and ready

With Tshabalala having resumed full training around ten days ago, he has not felt any recurring pain on the ankle injury which sidelined him since late July, and has never felt fitter. “I am just grateful that I have been able to overcome this latest injury and that it has not taken me such a long time to get back to training and fitness, as long as you feel good with the progress you have made in recovering from an injury then your comeback will be smooth. I feel that the recovery went well and personally I cannot wait to get back out onto the field and play, for me Friday is still too far away.