There will be no repeat of his man-of-the-match performance from Sunday’s Telkom Cup ¼ Final against SuperSport United for Siphiwe Tshabalala on Wednesday when Chiefs host his former team Free State Stars at the Olympia Park Stadium in Rustenburg.

The reason being that the Bafana Bafana midfielder, who had to be substituted in the 69th minute of The Amakhosi’s win over United, damaged his knee ligaments during the game and will be unable to face his former teammates later this week.

Tshabalala gutted

A clearly, upset Tshabalala spoke to kaizerchiefs.com of his disappointment on having to sit out Wednesday evening's match: “Being my old team and all, I really was looking forward to the game and I wanted to impress against them. After doing well for the team against SuperSport, I do feel that I could have played a part in helping the team gain another victory. I know them well and will know pass on what I know about them to the coach.”

Stars on the march

Stars, like The Amakhosi, proceeded on to the semifinals of the Telkom Cup this past weekend as they defeated Jomo Cosmos in Bethlehem for the second successive weekend. His former team’s resurgence has caught Siphiwe’s attention and he has commended the way they have played since their return to the PSL this season.

Tshabalala had the following advice for his Amakhosi team mates going into Wednesday’s clash with Stars: “What we need to understand is that Stars are a wholly different team from the one Chiefs played against two seasons ago when they were last in the PSL.”

Shooting Stars

Tshabalala also picked out a number of his former team mates for special praise, and tipped them to be the ones to watch as well as the possible trouble spots in the Stars team.

“This is a younger, faster team with players who play with a lot of hear ant spirit. For me the players to watch are Sifiso Vilakazi and Diyo Sibisi up front on Saturday, they gave Cosmos a really hard time”.

In addition, Tshabalala believes that the leadership qualities and hardworking ethics of his former skipper, Duncan Lechesa, has played a part in Stars renaissance this season.

“Having played under Duncan before, I can say that he is the kind of captain who keeps his team going for the full ninety minutes. His leadership abilities have definitely been central to Stars revival, its going to be a tough game we should pull through.”