New Kaizer Chiefs coach Fernando Da Cruz faces Sekhukhune United test

New Amakhosi head coach Fernando Da Cruz kicked off his tenure with a comfortable 3-1 league win over newly promoted Kruger United.

His team were then brought back down to life with a 1-0 loss to Golden Arrows at the weekend and they will be looking for a response against a Sekhukhune side now under the guidance of former Chiefs co-coach Cedric Kaze.

The Burundian has enjoyed a perfect start to his time at Babina Noko, with a 1-0 Premiership defeat of Durban City and 4-3 MTN8 win over AmaZulu.

Both Flavio Da Silva and Ethan Chislett both remain injury doubts for Da Cruz, after they were left out of the quarterfinal defeat.

“We have three games in six days, so we prefer to be careful with him [Da Silva]. The same thing for Chislett also," explained the Chiefs coach.

Langelihle Phili made his Chiefs debut as a second-half substitute and could make his first start against Sekhuhkune, but Faiz Abrahams is still not fit enough to join the squad.

"I'm happy about the performance of Phili today but he’s not 100% as yet, so we’ll go step by step with him to be careful

“And with Faiz, he has no pre-season whatsoever, so we are only starting to prepare him now and he’ll need a bit of patience,” added the coach.

Pule Mmodi and Asanele Velebayi were also left out against Arrows.

“For [Asanele] Velebayi and [Pule] Mmodi, it was just a choice today but we have three games in six days, so we’ll need the entire squad because it will be a tough week for all of us," he added.

Speaking after his side's MTN8 win, Kaze said it will be emotional to return to Chiefs with his new team.

He told reporters: “It's an emotional one, coming up on Wednesday. I think that first we need to recover well because this game took a toll on the physicality of the players, but I'm pretty sure on Wednesday we will be ready for the challenge.”