CAPE TOWN – Goalkeeper and captain Itumeleng Khune is back with the Kaizer Chiefs squad ahead of their Absa Premiership clash against Baroka on Tuesday.
Chiefs corporate communications manager Vina Maphosa confirmed to IOL Sport on Monday night that Khune will travel with the team to Polokwane for Tuesday night’s clash at the Peter Mokaba Stadium (7.30pm).
Khune missed the past weekend’s 3-0 victory over Free State Stars in the MTN8 after his girlfriend Sbahle Mpisane was involved in a horrific car accident in Durban in the early hours of last Thursday morning.
The club said at the time that Khune had “requested leave to attend to a personal matter”.
Fitness fundi Mpisane is still in ICU at the St Augustine’s Hospital after sustaining multiple fractures to her arms and legs.
Whether the Bafana Bafana No 1 Khune will play against Baroka, though, has not yet been decided.
“He is in camp with the other two goalkeepers, and the coach will decide overnight as to which one will be the keeper (for the Baroka match). So, he is in the camp, but there’s no decision about him playing yet,” Maphosa said.
The Chiefs starting XI will be named about an hour-and-a-half before the Baroka match.
Khune’s return to the squad comes at just the right time after Virgil Vries – who played in place of Khune against Stars – was injured late in the game.
Chiefs said on Monday that Vries has been ruled out for two weeks with a knee medial ligament problem.
The other goalkeepers in the squad are Bruce Bvuma and Brylon Petersen.
Apart from Khune coming back, there was further good news for coach Giovanni Solinas on Monday as midfielder Siphelele Ntshangase was declared fit to face Baroka after hurting his ankle in his Man-of-the-Match display against Ea Lla Koto.
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