Davids addresses injury ‘curse’ at Pirates

These days, coaches scratch their heads when they find out that they will have to do without certain players because they have turned in positive Covid-19 results. This becomes harder when you already have a depleted squad due to injuries.

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This has been the case for Orlando Pirates, and you would swear there has been a curse cast upon the Buccaneers, who are without a number of influential players.   

“It is a really tough period for the club in relation to injuries, even in the Jozef Zinnbauer era we played Thembinkosi Lorch as a number nine because we did not have strikers available,” said Buccaneers co-head coach Fadlu Davids.

“We analysed the injuries that we got in that period and if you said it couldn’t happen again, it happened again and this time with a lot of surgeries.

“Lorch had surgery, Innocent Maela had surgery. Richard Ofori and Vincent Pule are out for a long term, so it has been a really tough period for the club but we pull through. It is really important that we have a good preparation in the break and get everyone at a good level that can sustain us. We know it is a tough schedule that is coming up but we have the squad and we are more resilient as a team.

“A lot of players have put up their hands and to create competition, we have a starting line-up and a second line which pushes the starting line-up and with these injuries, there are a lot of opportunities for players to come in,” he added.

One may want to point fingers at the medical department at the club, but Davids explains how most of the injuries came about:

“It is not a blame game and we have not had many muscle injuries. Only Pule has a muscle injury – he tore his quad at the Bafana Bafana camp. Ofori fell and injured his shoulder while he was on national duty, Lorch had a freak accident while Maela had a bit of a growth on his groin and had to operate. It is not injuries that you can point at the fitness team or medical team (for).”