Hunt holding thumbs that skipper’s back

Bidvest Wits are sweating on the fitness of club captain Thulani Hlatshwayo ahead of their trip to Bloemfontein Celtic this weekend in the Absa Premiership.

Hlatshwayo pulled out of the 1-0 win at home to Orlando Pirates on Saturday at the last minute with a knee injury, as the Clever Boys finally pulled off a first league victory of the campaign.

It remains to be seen if “Tyson” is available again, and if not, whether he can recover in time for Bafana Bafana’s 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifier at home to Burkina Faso on October 7.

“There is something wrong with his knee, we will see when he is training,” Wits coach Gavin Hunt (right) said yesterday.

“Hopefully we can get Tyson fixed up for Sunday.”

Hunt was also still clearly upset about Pirates defender Happy Jele’s tackle on Egyptian striker Amr Gamal on Saturday. Jele clattered into Gamal with his studs up, but the referee gave no penalty and not even a yellow card to Jele. “It is a disgrace,” said Hunt. “It was not even a close call, and then we would have been 2-0 up with the game safe.”

Wits will, meanwhile, have defender Nazeer Allie back for the Celtic match after suspension while Hunt added that the Clever Boys were also trying to get attacking midfielder Elias Pelembe fit in time for the tricky trip to Phunya Sele Sele.

“It doesn’t come much harder than Celtic away,” said the Wits coach.

Hunt added that the title race is nowhere near Wits’ minds at the moment despite the victory over Pirates. The defending champions had failed to win any of their first five league games before Saturday’s narrow victory.

“We are not even thinking about that after the start we have had, we just need to find a bit of consistency in our results,” said Hunt.