Chiefs hit by injuries ahead of Sunday’s Soweto derby

Kaizer Chiefs are facing the possibilities of facing Orlando Pirates in the Carling Black Label Cup on Sunday at the Orlando Stadium without several of their key players. 

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Amakhosi already have the likes of Lebogang Manyama, Dumisani Zuma and Leonardo Castro out for the pre-season cup game with the trio nursing injuries. 

Now, Khama Billiat and Samir Nurkovic are likely to miss out, with the club’s fans having voted the two strikers as the trusted frontline to get the goals for the Glamour Boys. 

Coach Stuart Baxter revealed that they will continue assessing the players. 

“We have quite a long list, but obviously with the ones who are on long terms (injuries) are Lebogang Manyama and Leonardo Castro, those two are definitely out. Also Dumisani Zuma. There are also a couple of players, Khama went down today (Thursday) with some sort of flu. So we will be testing carefully for Covid..Samir went down with a hamstring injury,” said the Chiefs mentor during a virtual press conference on Thursday.

“So, the list is long. And Samir is also recovering from a knee injury that we have been treating. He trained today, but we need to asses him tomorrow Friday). So, there are lots of players that will not be included (in the squad for Sunday).”

Meanwhile, Baxter, who recently returned to Amakhosi has experienced the Carling Black Cup before. And says the most important thing for him on the day is to help out where he can, but most importantly, to allow the champion coach fan to do his duties for the day. 

“I’ve always tried to give the coach the best experience they can get. Try to give some simple advice, but try to give him some space so that he can feel what it actually feels like (being on the bench).”