Johnson gives Chiefs injury update ahead of Arrows clash

Kaizer Chiefs coach Cavin Johnson has confirmed that the club will be without defender Edmilson Dove, midfielder Siyethemba Sithebe and forward Ashley Du Preez when they play Golden Arrows.

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Amakhosi will visit Abafana Bes’thende at home in a DStv Premiership match at the Mpumalanga Stadium in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.

“Unfortunately for us, there is the unavailability of (Edmilson) Dove, who came from the national team, he has a groin injury. (Siyethemba) Sithebe has still not recovered from the injury he sustained at training three weeks ago. We also have Ashley (du Preez) out, who also injured himself just before the last game,” said Johnson, who was appointed as the new coach of Chiefs albeit on interim basis after the club parted ways with coach Molefi Ntseki on Monday.

“The other guys are all fit, there’s no major injury we are really worried about. Looking at where they come from and how they responded to our reaction, we have very good players available tomorrow (today),” added Johnson.

Johnson is expecting a tough encounter against Arrows, who have started the season well and are currently third on the log with 17 points in their opening seven league games.

“We are playing the second (third) team on the log, yes the league is still young. This is not my history, this is Kaizer Chiefs’ history, wherever they play it’s always a cup final. Whether you play number one or two, it’s a cup final. It’s going to be a cup final for us, for as long as we are here it will always be a cup final, no matter what game we play. We are going to do our best to have momentum going forward into the league.

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“The biggest threat is that they have a lot of speed in their team, coming from the wings. We have our work cut out for us in certain parts of the game, with a lot of pluses and minuses, but we are just going to go out there and have a great game of football,” concluded Johnson.