What are the facts?

Siyabonga Ngezana is highly valued by Kaizer Chiefs coach, Giovanni Solinas, and all indications are that the 20-year-old is one of the first names on the Italian mentor’s team sheets. The young defender’s rise has seen Erick ‘Tower’ Mathoho fall further down the pecking order, with the veteran having seen very little gametime this season.

His exclusions from Solinas’ match-day squads and starting line-ups have been noticeable, though he did receive a rare inclusion in Solinas’ line-up last weekend, in the team’s Telkom Knockout victory over Black Leopards.

Despite Tower’s inclusion, Solinas emphasised that he was without six key players in the cup win, and included two central defenders in that list of six.

Following the game, Solinas told SuperSport, “I knew today was going to be difficult for us. We played without six key players. Six key players. We don’t have (Leonardo) Castro, (Khama) Billiat, Lebogang Manyama, (Dumisani) Zuma, ( Siyabonga) Ngezana (and Daniel Cardoso).

Mathoho partnered Mario Booysen in central defence, in what was only his third competitive outing for Chiefs this season. The other two games were in the Absa Premiership, in Chiefs’ first two league matches of the season - the 1-1 draw against Mamelodi Sundowns and the 3-1 loss to Bidvest Wits.

Tower’s exclusion from Chiefs’ starting line- up, however, did not start under Solinas. Last season, under coach Steve Komphela, the 28-year-old made only 15 appearances in Amakhosi’s 30 Absa Premierships fixtures. The season prior, Tower played in 24 league games, and played in 27 and 25, respectively, out of the 30 league games in the two preceding campaigns.

Tower’s lack of game-time has also seen him lose his place in the Bafana Bafana set-up, with a number of senior players and youngsters picked ahead of him, despite his relationship with the current Bafana coach, Stuart Baxter, with the two having enjoyed success together during their respective days at Naturena.