Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojević will make a final decision on Friday whether to include the Bafana Bafana duo of Innocent Maela and midfielder Vincent Pule in the squad to face rivals Kaizer Chiefs in Saturday's highly anticipated Telkom Knockout semifinal clash.
Maela and Pule started for Bafana Bafana in the 1-1 international friendly draw against Paraguay in Durban on Tuesday night and Sredojević said he would run the rule over the two players at their last training session before making a final decision.
“Two of our players played the full match for Bafana Bafana against Paraguay during the week and we have that in mind‚” said Sredojević on Thursday afternoon.
“Both of them will have to pass a fitness test in order to prove that they are ready because a match of this magnitude and importance demands every single player to be 200 percent ready.
"Friday’s last training session will tell us what to do but we strongly hope that the scorer of the winning goal in the last match against Pirates will be part of the team on Saturday.
"We shall know when we have that late fitness test what is happening.”
Sredojević yet to decide on whether to include Maela and Pule in Pirates' squad for TKO semis
Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojević will make a final decision on Friday whether to include the Bafana Bafana duo of Innocent Maela and midfielder Vincent Pule in the squad to face rivals Kaizer Chiefs in Saturday's highly anticipated Telkom Knockout semifinal clash.
Maela and Pule started for Bafana Bafana in the 1-1 international friendly draw against Paraguay in Durban on Tuesday night and Sredojević said he would run the rule over the two players at their last training session before making a final decision.
“Two of our players played the full match for Bafana Bafana against Paraguay during the week and we have that in mind‚” said Sredojević on Thursday afternoon.
“Both of them will have to pass a fitness test in order to prove that they are ready because a match of this magnitude and importance demands every single player to be 200 percent ready.
"Friday’s last training session will tell us what to do but we strongly hope that the scorer of the winning goal in the last match against Pirates will be part of the team on Saturday.
"We shall know when we have that late fitness test what is happening.”
Looking ahead to Saturday’s clash‚ Sredojević said they would shown Chiefs respect as their rivals have proven individual players who have got what it takes to cause the Bucs problems.
“In sport and in life‚ there is something we call the law of averages‚" he said.
"Whatever was good in our last two matches against Chiefs we shall try to improve on and whatever we did not do well we shall try to correct.
"We have opponents who want to take revenge on us and for that we must be on our toes and not be caught flat-footed.
“We must be fully aware that we are playing against a team with top quality individuals.
"Itumeleng Khune is one of the (best) goalkeepers‚ they have my respected colleague Giovanni Solinas‚ they have Khama Billiat who is one of the players who could play in Europe.
"We have a challenge in front of us and we must respect the unpredictable nature of the game.”