Gavin Hunt, coach of Absa Premiership leaders Bidvest Wits, hinted this week that he might leave it until late to pick a side that will travel to Rustenburg to face Platinum Stars for the resumption of their league programme.
Usually a man in favour of rotating his players to keep them on their toes, the Clever Boys mentor might be dictated to by fitness concerns.
Elias Pelembe, one of the key players for Wits so far this season, limped off injured in a friendly international between his country - Mozambique - and Bafana Bafana on Tuesday night at the Estadio do Zimpeto. Wits had five players on international duty and that often comes with its own challenges.
“We don’t know what we are going to get,” said Hunt. “We get everyone back today and maybe tomorrow we will have a bit of a light session. You don’t know what condition they are going to be in, which means we will have to wait and see. And we have a few injured players as well.”
Wits will visit a struggling Dikwena, a side that’s run them close in previous meetings and is never short of goals.
Hunt’s men are top of the Premier League standings with 16 points from six matches and have two more in hand, but their momentum will have obviously taken a knock due to the Fifa international break.
They did get a run out against their PSL rivals Highlands Park and SuperSport United in the Gauteng Champion of Champions tournament in Tsakane on Sunday.
“We can’t be too concerned about stuff like that,” said Hunt when asked how pleased he was to be leading the pack with a two-match advantage. “We are just trying to stay focused on how many points we want to try and achieve at this point in time.
“Obviously, we want to stay ahead of that and I think we will do Okay. Listen, we have some tough games before the Christmas break (which is from December 18 to February 7) and we want to at least get two points from each game until then. We want to stay right up there.”
Their opponents on Saturday night desperately needed the break for coach Cavin Johnson to get his house in order, especially with five coaches having already been sacked or forced to resign because of poor results in the Premier League.
Dikwena, who finished third on the log last season, have managed just one victory from their eight matches in all competitions and will no doubt want to start collecting maximum points, beginning with one of the title favourites in Wits.
Follow Mazola Molefe on Twitter@superjourno
The Star