SuperSport United head coach Gavin Hunt laments the injury crisis that has struck his squad ahead of their CAF Confederation Cup second preliminary leg clash against Gaborone United.
The encounter is scheduled to start at 19:00 on Friday at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane.
Gavin Hunt revealed in the pre-match press conference on Thursday that eight players will be unavailable for the Confed Cup game, which is evenly balanced after a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Botswana two weeks ago.
But one might argue that Hunt and his troops hold an advantage of the away goal rule, having scored at Gaborone as they look to seal a win at home to quality for the group stages.
SuperSport will be without Neo Rapoo, Siphesihle Ndlovu, captain Thulani Hlatswayo, Thelente Mbatha, and Siyanda Xulu, among other players, due to injury.
However, Hunt is confident in his team’s ability to progress in the competition, and he believes that the players he picks for the battle on the night will put in a good shift.
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“You got to believe it. You know we’ve got a very small squad, the smallest in the league,” said Hunt. “We got to box clever.
“And obviously, we are shot of a few defenders, which is a worrying factor, so we might have to change the way we play, but we don’t really have any training time.
“So playing in Polokwane, as I said, we don’t have training time because a home game only takes us a day, now it’s taking us three days. So you play home and away in a week, which is seven days.
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“We are taking six days to play two games, where we normally take four days. i’m sure you must know we don’t have training time. We have got 20 minutes now, half an hour now to put a team together and work a bit of shape and different things, but they will adapt.”
“So playing in Polokwane, as I said, we don’t have training time because a home game only takes us a day, now it’s taking us three days. So you play home and away in a week, which is seven days.
“We are taking six days to play two games, where we normally take four days. You must know we don’t have training time. We’ve got 20 minutes now, half an hour now to put a team together and work a bit of shape and different things, but they will adapt.”