Thursday saw the return of The Amakhosi’s foreign players who had returned home for the recent festive holidays. Chiefs Ugandan international utility man, David Obua, jetted back into the country from his homeland where he had been around two weeks.

Almost on cue, and following Obua through the arrivals hall at the O.R. Tambo Airport in Johannesburg on Thursday was goalkeeper Markus Bocsker, who returned after spending close on two months in Austria where he was undergoing treatment to a damaged wrist.

As the sun broke through over Johannesburg on Thursday morning, a well rested and relaxed looking Muhsin Ertugral touched down back in the country from his holiday in the far east. The Chiefs coach headed straight to his office to prepare for The Amakhosi’s first training session of the New Year which is scheduled to take place on Saturday.

Jonathan Quartey who, like Obua and Bocsker, had also gone home for the holidays and returned from Ghana earlier in the week. Quartey, who had an extended holiday as he has been sitting on the sidelines with an injury since September, will be looking to begin training with the rest of his team mates on Saturday and could well be fully fit by the time Chiefs resume their league programme on the 13th February.

The return of Chiefs Zimbabwean international pairing of Onismor Bhasera and Tinashe Nengomasha late on Friday afternoon will complete the return of Chiefs' foreign contingent of players to the country.

McCarthy at the ready

Unlike his out of country teammates who had to fly in from around the continent and Europe, for Fabian McCarthy it was a few hours drive from his hometown of Vryburg in the North West Province, where he spent part of his holiday, back to Johannesburg.

McCarthy though cannot wait to get back onto the training ground and spoke to kaizerchiefs.com of his enthusiasm to begin chasing the ball around again, “I enjoyed the time off but I am anxious to start training again”.

Preparing to work

McCarthy, who also spent some time resting on the beaches in Cape Town, believes that with enough time to rest, Chiefs' will be putting in over time over the next few weeks in preparation for the resumption of the league. The combative defender said “The coach told us to rest as we need to be ready to work and I did just that. As we prepare for a very physically demanding programme during the next month, the rest was important. Now my mind is focused on getting into shape and winning matches when we start league action in February again”.

Camping plan

With a long lay off due to the Africa Cup of Nations, The Amakhosi will be holding a ten-day training camp in Stellenbosch in the Western Cape starting on the 9th January. McCarthy holds the opinion that the camp will be the perfect way for Chiefs to get back into a rhythm of training.

“Given the fact that we had two weeks off, it will be good for us to go away and focus just for ten days on training and getting our fitness levels up. I think that the way our schedule has been designed it is perfect as we have a number of friendly games which will help us measure up how our training has been going an and we will use these friendly games to remain match sharp”.