DURBAN - Whether he’s part of SuperSport United’s 18-man squad leading up to an official match, or asked to watch from the stands, Tefu Mashamaite always maintains a positive mindset - knowing that his time will come.
A niggling injury kept him from hitting the ground running, following his return from Swedish side Hacken, last year.
And now that he’s fully recovered from his knee operation, and has had full training sessions with his club leading up to this season, the 32-year old veteran defender stated that he’s now looking forward to getting more game time under his belt this season.
Mashamaite further went on to say that he would jump at the opportunity to start in SuperSport’s Nedbank Ke Yona Challenge match against the Ke Yona team this Sunday at Makhulong Stadium (kick-off 3.30pm), to prove his commitment to the club.
“Yeah; sure, why not? I hope that I get the nod in Sunday’s match,” Mashamaite said. “That would be great. I really need to play in a competitive match, so as to gauge how good my match fitness is. I only got to play 10 minutes in our MTN 8 quarter-final clash against Kaizer Chiefs that felt great to be honest. The season is still long and I believe that my time will come as the season progresses. I just need to be patient.”
Patience and continued hard work in training is what Mashamaite believes will help him to nudge either Morgan Gould or Clayton Daniels out of the starting line-up, based on merit that is. The 2014/15 Absa Premiership Footballer of the Season can play on either side of central defence, putting pressure on both incumbents.
“I’ve been in the starting line-up for most of my career, and like I said, I need to exercise patience this time around if I’m to break into a starting role (here at SuperSport),” Mashamaite said. “Both and Clayton Daniels and Morgan Gould have been doing really great, hence that’s why they are in the senior national team. We played in a friendly match this past Tuesday and I played for the whole 90 minutes. That felt great. I’m now getting stronger.”
Meanwhile, the central defender from Bochum, Limpopo, warned that Matsatsantsa cannot afford to approach Sunday’s match thinking that they are going to run circles around their amateur opponents for the whole 90 minutes. In fact, Mashamaite advised that his side should braced themselves for a fight of their lives.