SUPERSPORT United have ruled out attacking midfielder Lebogang Manyama for Sunday's game against Bloemfontein Celtic to allow him to recover fully from a knee injury.

Coach Cavin Johnson wants Manyama to join them when they travel to Tunisia for a CAF Confederation Cup second round game against Etoile du Sahel in the capital Tunis next week. Manyama sustained the injury when Matsatsantsa defeated AFC Leopards of Kenya.

"We tried him at training [on Tuesday] and he is still feeling some pain, hence we have decided to rest him this weekend," said Johnson yesterday.

"There are many games that we still have to play, both domestically and in the Confederation Cup. We will need all our best players going to Tunisia."

The coach confirmed that they would be travelling to Tunisia next week Thursday.

"We hope Manyama would have recovered and be ready to play against Etoile," he said. "For now the plan is to eliminate Etoile before we can even start thinking about the group stages, where we are confident we will continue doing well."

Johnson is excited that captain Thabo September is back in action after being sidelined by a knee injury he sustained in October last year.

"We gave him a run in the dying minutes [of the match] against Leopards in Nairobi, and we were impressed with his performance," Johnson said.

"It's also good that we will have Thato Mokeke also travelling with us to Bloemfontein.

"Celtic have been doing well, but we hope to come back with three points."