Sundowns’ Shalulile doubtful for Pirates clash

Mamelodi Sundowns could be without striker Peter Shalulile for the crunch MTN8 second-leg semifinal against Orlando Pirates this weekend.

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Shalulile has not played for Sundowns in the last three games and one would have assumed that the Brazilians are resting him as they faced La Passe part-timers in the Caf Champions League.

However, the Namibian striker was a notable absentee in Sundowns win over Marumo Gallants in the DStv Premiership on Wednesday night.

After the game, co-head coach Rulani Mokwena revealed that Shalulile had a muscular issue.

“Anything that I say about Peter would be based on suspicion and not fact. Let’s wait a little bit and the club will give an update but at the moment he is unavailable because there is a bit of a complication. When I say complication I am talking about a muscular issue and nothing else,” said Mokwena.

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“He’s got a little bit of a complicated situation and we are trying to see various specialists to get different opinions and different feedback from different specialists,”

“Proper diagnosis of the situation needs to take place then we will know what the way forward is. We don’t really know what the situation is but we hope he will be available (against Pirates).”

Meanwhile, the defending league champions stretched their winning streak in the league to four games with a 1-0 win over Gallants, with Sphelele Mkhulise scoring the winner in a heated encounter at Loftus Versfeld.

“I felt that the first half was probably our best performance this season from a structural perspective. We had good rest defence, good ball mobility and we recuperated the ball a lot faster. I thought we were very good.

“At Sundowns it is not just about the win, there is a certain expectation on how you should perform so that you can win. When your performances are not good enough to be worthy of results, you are going to have problems,” commented Mokwena.