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FINAL BOW:Black Leopards marksman Kingston Nkhatha. Photo:Gallo Images

 CAF match a fitting finale 

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BLACK Leopards hope to have Kingston Nkhatha available for one more CAF Confederation Cup commitment before he embarks on his new Kaizer Chiefs career.

The burly Zimbabwean forward has starred for the outfit in their continental sojourn, and is joint fifth top scorer in the competition with three goals.

The Limpopo-based side is trying to get permission from Chiefs for the player's final match with the team to be their third round, first leg play-off match away to Al-Merre ikh in Omdurman, Sudan, next Saturday.

"There is still some paperwork to be done on his deal (with Chiefs)," said Leopards spokesman Tendani Thidiela.

"But we want to send a request to Chiefs to have him going with us to Sudan for the game on June 30. Also, remember Premier Soccer League contracts generally end in June and his new Chiefs deal will maybe start from July 1."

Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung said Lidoda Duvha would need to send a proposal first.

"We have hardly finalised our own paperwork on him, and we've not heard anything from them (Leopards) about it," said Motaung.

"It would be hard for me to comment until they communicate with us (on the matter)."

The return leg is in Polokwane a fortnight later, where Leopards have a chance of earning a credible spot in the eight-team group stages of the tournament.

However, having started off their pre-season on Monday, Leopards said they would not sacrifice their PSL ambitions over the Al-Merreikh encounter.

Lack of proper rest in preparation for their Premiership campaign because of the league's play-offs last year was identified as one of the reasons they struggled last season.

"We won't be at our physical best so we won't put too much effort in Africa, particularly this first match," Thidiela said.

"We want to have proper pre-season for the Premiership this time. We struggled in the league last season because we didn't do it properly."

While they avoided a return to the First Division, Thidiela went on to warn the three play-offs hopefuls Santos, Thanda Royal Zulu and Chippa United.

"We struggled because we didn't do proper pre-season. By the time the winner of the play-off is confirmed, when are they going to rest?" he asked.

"Look at what happened to us. The players won't have time to rest, some of the players in the market won't be available.

"That is why for us, it's either we do things short term, or we go for the long haul of preparing properly for the league."

With strong interest in some of the players in the team, Leopards said they would not release any ahead of the new season.

Comments

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Tue May 21 21:36:26 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 21, 2012

Stumaeza

It looks like Black Leopards only have one striker (Nkhatha)...why not use other players instead of someone who's leaving the team.

Bobby if you let him play in Sudan you might regret da decision bcos he might get injured!
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Jun 22, 2012

hindsight

I hope he stays at leopards...........he failled at FSS.
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Jun 22, 2012

Morphius

Leapords mus jbs and use their current players....SOLD means that, SOLD

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