The 30 year old Chiefs central defender, prior to his appearance against Stars, last featured in a competitive game on the 22nd October. For the former Bafana Bafana defender playing in his 132nd game for the club was a more than welcome relief, after having to sit out the run into the 2006 – 2007 season and the start of the current one due to a root canal problem he had been experiencing.

McCarthy was steady at the back against Stars and did not look like a player who was shaking off the rust as a result of not being able to play competitive football for half a year, the man who wears the number six jersey knows that once Jonathan Quartey and Jimmy Tau return from injury, he will have a battle on his hands if he wants to retain his starting slot in the team. In the meantime Fabian is concentrating on renewing his partnership with Moketi Tsotetsi in the centre of the defense when Chiefs come up against SuperSport United this weekend in the Telkom Knock Out Cup.

Quick Start



While McCarthy might have had qualms about the way things would go for him against Stars, he put in a real workman like performance in Rustenburg and did an effective man-marking job on keeping quiet the dangerous Stars striker Heairapo Marumo.

What was a tough assignment handed out to McCarthy, was handled with the maturity and professionalism one would expect of a player of his experience as he shut Marumo out of the game.

Talking to kaizerchiefs.com about his return to action the Chiefs defender said “You're always concerned about how a game will go for you, especially since I had not played for so long. Given the task to mark a player like Simba can be a very tricky one.”

He was though relieved that Chiefs were able to keep a clean sheet, adding “Thankfully after I got in a couple of good strong tackles early on things fell into place for me, I must add that I did analyze my mistakes after the game and I felt that there were two elementary mistakes which I could have avoid making. On the whole I think it went well for me on Sunday and it felt as though I was making my debut all over again, it is just great to be back playing again”.

Super Sunday

The fact that Fabian was able to form part of a Chiefs rearguard who did not concede any goals on Sunday, as helped the Amakhosi backline grow in confidence and it is a much needed shot in the arm for them looking towards Sunday’s Telkom Knock Out encounter against a formidable opponent in SuperSport United.

It is a game which McCarthy believes that Chiefs' last line of defense could be made to work over time, "Lets not take anything away from SuperSport, they are and always have been a team who crave a challenge. We're expecting them to attack with all they have, and like they always do, they will bring the game to us. From our side we need this win as it will do a lot for our season in its entirety and after our recent results we need to give our fans something to cheer about”.