SUPERSPORT United coach, Kaitano Tembo, has welcomed the timely return of all his players ahead of their DStv Premiership clash against struggling Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium on Friday night (8pm).
Since the season started Tembo has not had his full squad due to injuries and suspension.
But for the first time this season, he’ll have a full squad to select from.
SuperSport had six players who were representing their different national teams during the Fifa international break and all of them are back injury-free.
Fully recovered from injuries are Clayton Daniels, Bradley Grobler who was withdrawn from the Bafana Bafana squad due to ankle injury.
Grant Kekana, Luke Fleurs and Sipho Mbule recently returned after missing the first three matches of the season.
Tebogo Mokoena and Ronwen Williams are back from national duty, as well as Kudakwashe Mahachi (Zimbabwe) and Gamphani Lungu (Zambia).
And that has given Tembo a good selection headache.
“For the first time this season, everyone is available for selection ahead of the Maritzburg game. Those who were injured have recovered and that gives me a selection headache. Now, we have to go there and get better results after losing our last league game to Orlando Pirates,” said Tembo.
This will be a tricky encounter for Matsatsantsa a Pitori who are facing Maritzburg who are yet to win a match this season.
Maritzburg have lost all four of their league matches and that has resulted in the club axing coach Eric Tinkler on Monday.
Former Bafana midfielder, Delron Buckley, will be on the bench for the Team of Choice after he was appointed to take charge on an interim basis.
Tembo, whose aim is to surpass last season’s fifth place finish, said focusing on what’s happening in their counterpart’s camp could be dangerous.
“The focus is on ourselves,” he quibbed.
“We can’t focus on what’s happing in their camp. It’s key to focus on ourselves and our goals that we want to achieve this season.”
In four matches, Matsatsantsa have managed to accumulate six points from two victories while losing the other two matches.
Tembo added: “In the four games we’ve played I think we could have done better. But this is better than last season’s start. I believe we’ll get better with time. It’s still early, but we need to collect as many points as we can.”
