On the litany of injuries in the Kaizer Chiefs camp:

In terms of preparations, so far so good. The boys look okay, it’s only the injuries we have that are now killing our momentum in terms of the combinations. Losing (Phathutshedzo) Nange, who is suspended, and (Kearyn) Baccus, because of a thigh injury, we thought he was going to be available. We tried to push it, thinking he might pass a late fitness test, unfortunately, he could not make it and he’s not going to be available for this game. Keagan Dolly has a calf injury as well, which he picked up on Wednesday. He’s going to be out for 6-8 weeks. (Samir) Nurkovic is going to be out with a knee injury. So all those injuries happened towards the end of our preparations. Now we had to reassert other things and prepare the team in terms of combination play.

On how to respond:

We are trying to see who can give us that balance going forward. Some responded positively, some are a little bit fringe because they have not been playing for some time now. So we will see who we think will give us that extra oomph or balance or better attacking options. We will maybe go for (Bernard) Parker or Lazalous (Kambole) with who we will start with. We welcome back Mshini (Nkosingiphile Ngcobo), but he is also not 100 percent. We’re trying to get the combinations right. It’s the nature of this game, where the key players are having challenges here and there due to injuries, but we will see what we can do.

On what it means for fringe players:

Opportunities and things like this do happen, they open doors for other players who have not been playing regularly. We are willing to give them the opportunity to showcase their talent and express themselves. We believe in them, so yes we will try and go for the right combination we think will give us maximum points and also perform well. With also players coming from the bench that can make that positive impact for us.

On using the remainder of the season to build for the new campaign:

We are doing that. Unfortunately, we have a lot of players who had low self-esteem and we had to build them up in a short space of time obviously you’re not going to get things right, because of the time spent. It’s a bit dicey, but we remain positive that whoever we give the opportunity will grab the opportunity with both hands. They’re good lads, it’s just that things happened the way they happened and they happened for a reason. It’s good for them to raise their hand. We will throw them into the deep end, but we believe there is going to be a positive outcome.

On opponents Sekhukhune United:

We obviously profiled them. They’re a difficult team to play against, especially at home. They form a deep block and they’re very quick going forward, which is their strength. They are a team that plays with a lot of energy and they fight for everything. They have the experience of coach Owen da Gama, that gives them a plus in terms of the experience they have on the bench. But we will take the game to them, we are not going to go there and sit back. We will go there and see how it goes. We remain positive we will go there and get maximum points. That’s key to us in terms of building for next season. Those we are giving the opportunity, they will have to raise their hands.