Player recovery a priority for Mamelodi Sundowns

The Portuguese mentor took charge of his second match on Wednesday following his appointment, registering a 1-0 win over Stellenbosch FC in the Betway Premiership at the DHL Stadium.

But Cardoso did so on the back of several forced changes, something he will focus more on to prepare for a busy January.

"Let's understand that most of these injuries were traumatic injuries. So, the worry is just that they are not there it's not a matter of preparation for sure because they are from traumatic injuries as we saw for sure in the match in Casablanca,” Cardoso said.

“So there are traumatic injuries that we have to wait for like Themba [Zwane] but they will come at the right time, for those we need to provide them the rest they need.

“There are few ones that are coming back quite quickly, Kekana [Grant] is coming back quite quickly, Mosa [Lebusa} we expect him to come back quite quickly.

“Today from Marcelo [Allende], he suffered a punch, you don't control that obviously. We'll see the assessment on him and hopefully he can recover again very quickly."

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Cardoso made six changes to the team that beat Raja Casablanca 1-0 in the CAF Champions League group stage clash at Loftus a few days earlier.

The coach said he understood some of the players would not keep up with the intensity of the Stellies game.

"I completely cope with and agree with your question, for the players that didn't play for so long like Rush [Rushine de Reuck] today, it's normal that he can suffer before the end of the game because the effort today was hard,” the coach added.

‘The running, I still need to see the data from him because for sure he has many metres of high intensity and that pace. So, I agree just because of that, there is no major concern obviously the concern is that we don't have the players but we have a big group, we are working with the other one so that we can give answers.

“Like I said in the beginning we need to be a very strong team because probably in some moments we need to join ourselves and get the opportunity to make a match and win it, even if it's from 1-0."