Cape Town City coach Benni McCarthy has revealed that striker Tokelo Rantie has not made his debut for the Citizens due to a lack of fitness.
Rantie joined City in August following a long spell on the sidelines having left Turkish side Genclerbirligi towards the end of 2017.
The player’s last league goal was on 25 May 2017 for his former side and he is reportedly battling to regain peak conditioning after such a long spell out of the professional game.
As such, McCarthy says the player’s fitness remains a concern though the outfit from the Mother City were working hard to ensure he makes a return to action at some point in 2018/19.
Speaking after his side’s 2-0 loss to Highlands Park on Saturday, he told reporters: “I will assess that when I get back because ‘TK’ was not part of the travelling squad.
“He is behind and needs to work on his fitness. So when we get back we will try to get him up to speed in terms of game-time ready, that’s all I can say.”
The former Bafana Bafana hitman added that he expects City to be competitive in their final two games of 2018 against Free State Stars and Bloemfontein Celtic.
The 41-year-old concluded: “Of course the aim is not to finish at the bottom of the table and we must just continue to work. But I think we are a far better team than one sitting at the bottom.
“We were in a hiccup after the MTN8 final and, yeah, now we are playing good football and we take each game as it comes.
“We have two home games and we can go and enjoy some good football. You win two games and this result doesn’t matter.”
