While David Mathebula went under the surgeons knife early on Wednesday afternoon at a clinic in northern Johannesburg to repair a broken Metatarsal in his right foot, his coach sitting across town at the Kaizer Chiefs village Muhsin Ertugral began to plan and plot Chiefs way ahead for the next couple of months with out Mathebula whose star has most definitely been on the ascendancy for Chiefs over the past few PSL matches.

The news from the Chiefs medical staff is that Mathebula in all likelihood will only return to action some time towards the end of the year.

the Chiefs coach is determined to do everything he can to help Mathebula fully recover and get back to his pre injury form as soon as possible.

Knockout blow

Ertugral described Mathebula’s loss to injury as a loss of a key member of the squad and a player who was going to be central to Chiefs success over the coming months. The Chiefs coach said. “For me the saddest thing about this whole thing is that the guy who injured David did not even pick up a card for his ferocious tackle, losing David puts us in a far from ideal situation. To be successful in a season you need your on form player to be getting as much game time as possible, the thing is that we do have other guys in the squad who can fill in it will though take us time to work around not having him in the team”.

Back ASAP

The Chiefs coach along with his medical staff have vowed to do whatever it takes to get Mathebula up and running as quickly as they can. They will not rush him back into training and will afford him all the time that he needs to recover.

Although the initial diagnosis is that he will be out of action for up to three months, Ertugral is hopeful that Mathebula will be available for selection sooner than three months as he added. “We as a team and the technical staff will do all we can to ensure that he gets back to full fitness in rapid time, we won’t push him back into action, he does deserve our support and full backing to have him back to his best again. He can be rest assured that the club will bend back wards to make sure that he makes a thorough and proper recovery, for our future success and for him to fulfil his true potential he needs to be properly rehabilitated from this set back”.

Immense talent

While Chiefs will have contingency plans in place to deal with Mathebula’s absence, Ertugral has tipped the dynamic midfielder to bounce back from this injury and play a starring role for The Amakhosi in the future.

Ertugral added “David is a wonderful player who has great tactical and technical acumen; he is able to think quickly off his feet and has so far demonstrated that he is full value for the opportunities that have been given to him with the way he has played over the past few games”.

Mathebula who turned 24 in June has a lot still to offer and according to Ertugral has over the past couple of years been under utilized, “if you look at it he is 24 now and the kind of player he is he should have been a regular in the national team at this stage of his career. He does still have the time to become a regular at international level and if he continues playing the way he is and puts in the same commitment he will go places, my opinion is that he was not given enough of a platform over the past couple of seasons to have shown what he is capable of doing. Hopefully we can give him the platform he needs and I should also say deserves to help me further develop as a footballer, and apart from just being successful at club level to also do well with the national team”.