Bad luck with injuries

Many people believe that injuries are all down to bad luck. This looks less true for muscle injuries, like hamstring, groin or calf problems, which are usually down to overtraining, overplaying or insufficient recovery. However, impact injuries like shoulder problems, broken bones or knee problems are often more related to external factors like bad tackles.

Since Middendorp came in, he has not had Itumeleng Khune in goal for a single league game. Under Solinas, despite the side’s defensive problems, Khune kept six clean sheets in 13 games. Without him, the Glamour Boys have seen three howlers from their stand-in goalkeeper. Virgil Vries’ blooper against Sundowns turned a 1-1 draw into a 2-1 defeat, and his mistake against Cape Town City turned a 0-0 draw into a 1-0 defeat. Against Polokwane City, Chiefs were leading 1- 0 before Daniel Akpeyi’s error turned that potential win into a 1-1 draw.

Of course, it’s impossible to say for sure that Chiefs would not have dropped points anyway in those games, but having the country’s best goalkeeper can only have given them a greater chance of winning. If you add those four extra points to the Soweto giants’ tally, they would be on the same points haul to Cape Town City.

Middendorp has also had to deal with inherited injuries to Ramahlwe Mphahlele and Erick Mathoho, whilst seeing Happy Mashiane break his toe and Lebogang Manyama injuring his knee. The latter came on the back of a very hectic run of minutes for the player and Middendorp is therefore not blameless.