Kaizer Chiefs are optimistic that attacker, Gaston Sirino, will be available for their upcoming Carling Knockout match against SuperSport United.
The ex-Sundowns forward missed the team’s recent friendly against Marumo Gallants due to an injury, and his absence was keenly felt.
Chiefs’ coach Nasreddine Nabi expressed his desire to have Sirino back in action for the crucial cup tie against SuperSport United at Peter Mokaba Stadium.
While acknowledging that Sirino might not be at full fitness, Nabi believes his presence will provide a significant boost to the team’s chances of success.
“You will notice that we actually felt the absence of Sirino in our last game. So, it shows the importance of that player in our team winning, maybe he’s not fully recovered but we are at least trying to count on him in the next game,” Nabi said.
“He won’t maybe play the whole 90 minutes but we’ll see how long we can give him on that game.”
The return of Sirino coincides with the arrival of Chiefs’ international players from their respective national team duties. However, Nabi has expressed concerns about the fitness levels of some players, particularly Eddison Castillo and Rushwin Dortley, who may require additional time to recover.
“It is always interesting to have certain players in your team to be part of the national team and I’m sure also there are other players in our team that will have the opportunity to represent the national team,” he added.
“But having a game that is so close to their return from the national team that might be a challenge for us because we don’t have enough time to give the players to recover and tactically prepare for their upcoming game.
“For instance, we have a player like Castillo who’s only arriving today at 3 pm, so we don’t know if he’s gonna have enough time to recover. Also, I heard that Dortley has an injury so all these issues we need to try and work around them and see how we can include them in the team and prepare for the game.”