Jose Riveiro tight-lipped on unavailability of Pirates key players
Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro is tight-lipped on the unavailability of the club’s key players.
Pirates resumed the second round of the 2022/23 DStv Premiership season with a disappointing 2-0 loss against Mamelodi Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld Stadium last Friday.
Ahead of the crunch encounter, the Buccaneers were sweating over the unavailability of some of their stand-out performers this season.
And Riveiro has since refused to divulge on the expected time for all players to be available for selection.
JOSE RIVEIRO ON INJURED PLAYERS
“I’m so happy with the players that I have, who are available to play,” Riviero told the media.
“We have enough [players], it was chance to play those who made it to the starting eleven and the one’s who came from the bench.
“We don’t think about players who didn’t play; I will start thinking about players who didn’t play in the next day because we have to face Cape Town City very soon.
“Again, there’s going to be competition to be in the starting line-up.
“So let’s see who’s playing next time, the one’s who played against Sundowns did a fantastic job.
“Obviously we didn’t get the results we were looking for. But we cannot only analyze results from our side,” he added.
Asked when the injured players are expected to be back with the rest of the squad, the Spanish mentor remained reluctant to provide an update.
“No I don’t speak about injured players or individuals players. It’s the same line like the beginning of the season.
“It’s not my role to talk about players who are not available,”
The Soweto giants were missing the services of Olisa Ndah, Thembinkosi Lorch, Tebogo Tlolane and Richard Ofori who sustained an injury before the just-ended FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Pirates will be looking to bounce back to winning ways and collect maximum points when they face the tricky Cape Town City on Saturday, 7th of January at Cape Town Stadium. Kick off is at 17:30.
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