Kaizer Chiefs’ second assistant coach, Cedric Kaze, was a notable absentee in the 4-1 Betway Premiership loss to SuperSport United on Tuesday night at FNB Stadium.
For the first time since joining Amakhosi, Kaze, who usually interprets for head coach Nasreddine Nabi during post-match interviews, was not on the bench.
The former Young Africans coach joined the Soweto giants to replace Fernando Da Cruz, who left before the start of the season.
Although the club didn’t confirm the reason for his absence, it has been established that the Burundian coach was hospitalised over the weekend. The 44-year-old coach is said to have fallen ill and is recovering from hospital.
In addition, Chiefs were without a number of players for the SuperSport clash, namely the injured Wandile Duba, Dillan Solomons, Sibongiseni ‘Ox’ Mthethwa, Edson Castillo, and Edmilson Dove, and the suspended Samkelo Zwane.
HOW NABI REACTED TO CHIEFS’ LOSS
The Tunisian mentor believes his side’s humiliating defeat to SuperSport United was due to their failure to recover after their last match against Chippa United. Going into the tie, Amakhosi were unbeaten in three games across all competitions.
Two of the goals SuperSport scored came through the former Chiefs duo of Samir Nurkovic and Christian Saile.
Ghampani Lungu and Siphesihle Ndlovu added the other two, while Glody Lilepo scored the face-saver for Chiefs. Lilepo’s goal takes his tally to three goals in four outings since joining the club in January.
“It was a very difficult game and painful loss…,” Nabi told SuperSport TV. “Obviously, I’m not gonna give excuses, but there are excuses because we only had two days for the players to recover, and they played an exceptional match, but unfortunately, as I said, we can’t give excuses, but there are excuses.”
Chiefs played Chippa United on Saturday, beating them 3-0 to progress to the last eight of the Nedbank Cup. On the other hand, their opponents had last played a match six days prior against Cape Town City in the Nedbank Cup.
Nabi expressed concern that the team conceded as early as the fourth minute. “It hurts. It’s really painful,“ he admitted.
He urged the fans not to judge the team based on that performance. “We can see that we gifted them the first three goals. It was just giveaways.
“It happens. Also, it happens to big teams; you must not judge the team only on today’s performance.”
Amakhosi’s next game, against Mamelodi Sundowns in the Betway Premiership, will be on March 1, 2025, at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
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