Orlando Pirates stand-in coach Fadlu Davids will have an opportunity to prove himself again in the absence of head coach Josef Zinnbauer.

Davids will lead Pirates when they meet Bloemfontein Celtic in the DStv Premiership match tonight at Dr Molemela Stadium (7.30pm).

He takes over from Zinnbauer temporarily.  Zinnbauer has returned to his home country Germany to be with his son Fabio, who is in a coma following a car crash in Nuremberg last month.

The coach departed the country straight after Pirates' 3-0 win over rivals Kaizer Chiefs in the MTN8 semifinal first leg on Saturday at Orlando Stadium.

It could be a while before Ziinnbauer return to the country, and this is an opportunity for Davids to prove himself.

The last time he coached a team as head coach was on December 22 2018 when Maritzburg United lost 0-1 to Baroka at home. He was fired two days later. A month later he joined Pirates' technical team headed by  Milutin Sredojevic as head coach while Rulani Mokwena was the assistant coach.

After Sredojevic and later Mokwena left the club, Davids stayed to be the assistant to Zinnbauer, when the German arrived at Bucs last December. The two steered Pirates to a respectable with the two helping the club to a third-place finish last season.

Now he has the opportunity to show what he is capable of, starting with two tough matches against Celtic tonight and against Chiefs on the MTN8 semi-final second leg at FNB Stadium on Sunday.

These matches will be a test for him, with Celtic currently playing well under coach John Maduka, while he will need to protect their 3-0 lead against Chiefs on Sunday.

The 39-year-old former striker will also hope that star player Thembinkosi Lorch will repeat tonight the performance he showed against Chiefs at the weekend.

Lorch bounced back to top form creating the second goal scored by Pule before scoring the third as Bucs whipped Amakhosi 3-0.

If Lorch is on song, the Buccaneers perform like top orchestra and David would be happy to conduct such proceedings against Phunya Sele Sele.

After he was named PSL player of the season in 2018/19, the Bafana Bafana winger had a forgettable follow-up season, which was made worse by off-pitch escapades which included a criminal charge for female bashing. Though he was back in court on October 27, on the field of play he appears to be hungry again.