1. Rooi 'Ngubo' Mahamutsa is nursing an
injury he suffered against SSU in Attredgville where he dislocated his elbow.
The medical reports released to the media by the team initially said Mahamutsa
will only miss the Maritzburg United clash.
2. Siyabonga Sangweni and Patrick Phungwayo
are on long term injuries.
3. Happy Jele will be suspended for the
Celtic clash and that leaves Bheki Ndzunga as an option for the right back.
Many will argue Ndzunga's capabilities since the Meluti Saga but the last time
the lad played an official competitive game was In Lubumbashi against TP
Mazembe where captain Lucky Lekgwathi was red carded in the first 20 minutes of
the game.
My talking point in the Pirates defense
crises stems from last season when coach Roger de Sa was appointed. The first thing
the coach did was to drop Lekgwathi and opted for the Sangweni-Mahamutsa
combination in the heart of our defense.
The combination was working well until
Mahamutsa suffered a torn achilles injury which kept him out for almost the
whole of last season.The captain was brought back in to partner Sangweni. They
did well until Sangweni Suffered a long term knee injury fortunately Mahamutsa
was back so he stepped in to partner Lekgwathi.
This season the captain was on the starting
berth until Sangweni recovered. He was dropped like a hot potato to be replaced
by Sangweni who found himself nursing torn achilles within two games of his
return.
The Captain was sidelined because of his
controversial media outburst where he claimed he doesn't blame the coach for
his exclusion; he knows there are sinister forces who are out to get him... so
Gcaba had to step in to partner Mahamutsa in the heart of defense.
Jele was suspended for the 2nd leg of the
Final in Cairo the team had no choice but to call the captain back to the
squad. We lost the final and had a week's break of FIFA Calendar. Our first
game after the CAF Final was the semi-finals of the Telkom Knockout. Lekgwathi
was on the bench but came in later to replace Mahamutsa who dislocated his
elbow.
Now you know it’s not easy to coach a big
team like Pirates. There are many challenges on n off the field... Roger That!
By Philani Madonsela
