Kaizer Chiefs received a timely boost as they prepare for a tough assignment against Santos in Port Elizabeth on Sunday afternoon after midfield kingpin Siyabonga Nkosi continued training with the first team on Tuesday morning and has had no flare up of the ankle injury, which kept him out of action recently.

Nkosi, who missed Chiefs game against Leopards on the 7th April, returned to full training on the 13th April and while for many Friday 13th may not be a date they would think of as being a lucky charm it has been the opposite for Nkosi who since Friday has gone through four training sessions, and in addition he pulled through 20 minutes of a training game on Saturday morning with out any difficulty.

Nkosi, who played a central role in Chiefs 4-0 win over his former team Bloemfontein Celtic on the 10th March in Durban, injured himself just over a month ago while playing for Bafana Bafana in a training game against Swaziland. The highly rated midfielder feels that he is back to full fitness and has welcomed the prospect of coming up against Santos on Sunday.

"I have pushed myself to the limit over the past couple of training sessions and I must say that I have not felt fitter or stronger, in recent times then I do now. It took me some time to over come the injury I am happy to say that the recovery process is now complete and I can not wait to get out onto the field for Sunday’s game,” said Nkosi.

With a five-point gap between Chiefs and Santos and Bloemfontein Celtic and Orlando Pirates also on 38 points, the same number as Chiefs, Nkosi believes there is a lot riding on the game for him and his teammates, and the only thing on his mind at the moment is to win on Sunday.

“The obvious thing for us is to go out there and get the three points we are aware that it will be a tough assignment but we will be up to the challenge, more importantly we want to put a healthy gap between us and the teams breathing down our necks such as Pirates and Celtic,” he said.

Chiefs will also be aiming at winning the game against Santos, as it would give them a huge lift with a game against archrivals Orlando Pirates to follow after this weekend’s game against Santos.

"I do feel that we need to win the Santos game as it will be a shot in the arm for our confidence and will work as a motivating factor for the derby game against Pirates, that obviously is a fringe benefit right now we are only thinking about this weekend’s game,” Nkosi added.

Nkosi who in addition to finding the back of the net when the two the teams met in December last year in a game which Chiefs ran out 3-2 winners, put up a display worthy of winning any game that time around, is hoping to be at his destructive best and be Santos tormentor in Chiefs “when we played against them in December we took the game to them and did not sit back and wait for them to make the move.

“We were unrelenting in attack and kept on asking questions of their defence, we need to once more make sure that from the kick off we control the game and keep them under pressure and on the back foot. What will be of paramount importance for us is to ensure that we stick away like we did in the December game the first chances that fall our way”.

Nkosi believes that the decision taken by Santos to shift the game away from Cape Town and play it in Port Elizabeth instead could well work in Chiefs favour, as The Amakhosi are quiet familiar with the settings at the Eastern Province Rugby Stadium.

“Playing in Cape Town this time of the year can be quiet tricky as the weather plays itself up quiet a lot, and visiting teams have to battle strong winds and wet weather. Which obviously suits the host team because they are accustomed to those conditions; Santos advantage is somewhat lost with the game being shifted to neutral ground so to speak. Most of the guys played in Port Elizabeth recently and know what to expect in terms of the state of the pitch and the weather patterns, so I do feel that the fact that the game is being played away from Cape Town is an advantage for us”.

The last time Nkosi got his name onto the score sheet for Chiefs was on the 27th January when his 32nd minute solitary strike against Ajax Cape Town, in a PSL game played at Loftus in Tshwane helped propel Chiefs up to the top spot in the league. By his own admission the Chiefs midfielder believes that going close to four months with out a goal is not part of his game plan and he is targeting Sunday’s game in the friendly city towards helping him once again find his scoring touch and help earn the team three valuable points with a win away from home.