BIDVEST Wits winger, Elias Pelembe, could miss the remainder of the 2019-20 Absa Premiership campaign.
The 36-year-old has not been training with the club since the Clever Boys resumed training a couple of weeks ago.
He is stuck in his home country Mozambique and can’t come back to South Africa due to the closure of borders betweenMzansiand neighbouring countries, as part of restrictions against the raging coronavirus.
Wits coach, Gavin Hunt, said there’s nothing they can do, but they will have to soldier on without veteran midfielder when the Absa Premiership resumes next week.
Hunt said this was an issue beyond the club’s control.
“Pelembe is not back yet,” said Hunt whose club will use FNB Stadium for their home matches when football resumes next week.
“He is in his home country and there’s nothing we can do as a club right now. We will start the season one man short, and he’s the player that I wanted to help us as we continue to lose players. He is the only player that is not with the team.
“We do not know when the borders will open so we might not have him for the rest of the season. When he comes back he will still need to follow the protocols quarantine and all that.”
Hunt said they are looking forward to playing after the Premier Soccer League (PSL) chairman Irvin Khoza announced on Monday that the PSL campaign will resume on the weekend of 8 August.
Wits are currently sitting in position six in the Premiership table.
They accumulated 38 points in 21 matches that they played before the league was postponed on 16 March due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Hunt added: “Like all other teams we have not had enough training, but we are looking forward to the resumption of the league. I think we should be fine, we just need to go out there and give our best.
“The players should not let what happened (the sale of the club) creep into their minds, it might affect them.”
Wits sold their PSL status to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila (TTM) for next season. And that will see TTM campaigning in the top flight next season after the PSL approved the sale of Wits. Bloemfontein Celtic are another club that has a foreign player (Ronald Pfumbidzai) who is stuck in his home country, Zimbabwe.