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With a FIFA transfer ban weighing on the club and a succession of injuries, it has been a rocky start for Gavin Hunt’s coach with the Soweto giants.
Kaizer Chiefs fans got bad news Tuesday after the club announced that midfielders Dumisani Zuma and Kearyn Baccus have injury problems.
“Dumisani Zuma suffered a hamstring injury in training. Kearyn Baccus has a thigh strain. Both players will undergo a scan and an update will be reported,” reads a statement on Amakhosi’s official Twitter account on Tuesday morning.
This news comes ahead of Amakhosi’s league match against Black Leopards at FNB Stadium on Wednesday night.
Neither player directly participated in the Chiefs’ most recent game, a 0-0 draw on Saturday against Cameroonian champion PWD Bamenda, which was enough to reserve Amakhosi his spot in the first round of the Champions League in the Caf, following their 1-0 win in West Africa the previous weekend in the first leg.
While Baccus was an unused substitute Saturday at FNB Stadium, Zuma wasn’t on the squad at all.
However, Zuma had been an unused substitute in the Glamor Boys’ previous game, a 0-1 loss to Swallows FC in the league.
Before sitting on the bench against the Birds, Zuma’s last appearance had been at the end of last season, the final game of the campaign in which they drew 1-1 at Baroka FC to award the league title to Mamelodi Sundowns. .
With last season’s top scorer, Samir Nurkovic, also injured all season so far, Zuma’s offensive prowess has been especially missed.
But now, in the same week that Nurkovic returned to training, Zuma has suffered another setback.
The reason the 25-year-old former Bloemfontein Celtic attacking midfielder has been so missed is because the Chiefs, amid a FIFA transfer ban, lack natural wide players.
Forward Leonardo Castro, in a similar mold to Nurkovic, has lacked the service he needs.
Various players such as Khama Billiat, Lebogang Manyama, Bernard Parker, Lebohang Lesako and most recently Siphelele Ntshangase, have been used on the flank by Chiefs coach Gavin Hunt, but none have really excelled and it is clearly a position in which the team is short.
Zuma would have fulfilled that role to perfection.
Hunt has also cut and traded his central midfielders, and not having the solidity that Baccus potentially provides is another setback.
Also injured by the Glamor Boys are defenders Reeve Frosler and Ramahlwe Mphahlele, although the latter is expected to return soon.
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