Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has allayed fears over the injury of goalkeeper Ronwen Williams who has been a notable absentee from the squad.
The Bafana Bafana captain and vice captain of Masandawana was not present in their victory over Sekhukhune United and the 2-1 loss to Al Hilal in the CAF Champions League this past weekened.
Club legend Denis Onyango stepped into the starting line-up and amidst concerns over Williams recent form, there were question marks whether the goalkeeper was dropped but Cardoso says his absence is in order to prevent something serious occuring.
“There’s always small things for teams after matches but it’s not important because they don’t take players out of matches, they may demand from us, some management from us in training sessions to avoid overloads, even sometimes we can decide to skip a player in a match, not because he’s injured but [precautionary] then we manage it,” he said.
“Ronwen, had a small thing on one of his adductors, not a muscle injury but syndrome, it’s not long-term, we hope to have him back as soon as possible, maybe this weekend, that’s what we’re trying to work on. Being an important player, as one of our captains, when Themba is not on the pitch he takes take responsibility
“But also by what he means as a player, just go back to the press conference of the coach of Al Hilal, how he prepared the team different just because of the characteristics of goalkeepers are different which allows different approaches… but soon he will be back. Denis also had something small [injury] but he’s ready and we trust him so much.”
Sundowns face Gomora on Wednesday evening at Loftus Versfeld in their Nedbank Cup opener at 19h00.
