Mamelodi Sundowns could be facing a risk of further injuries and lack of rhythm with a heavy fixture schedule early in the season.
Sundowns perhaps expected a very challenging 2025/26 season after they participated at the FIFA Club World while other teams in the were firstly, had a break and were in pre-season.
It's quite not normal that a team would have just over a week of pre-season before the new campaign got underway and that's exactly what happened with The Brazilians.
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The Tshwane giants have already played five matches under three weeks and will play Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 semi-final first leg and Kaizer Chiefs in the Betway Premiership in a space of four days.
Masandawana already had elements that they could be playing too many games too soon, after the injury of Themba Zwane against Pirates in the MTN8 semi-final first-leg, which was followed by two of his teammates who had to be substituted due to injuries.
There is also observations that Sundowns are yet to click into gear or get into the rhythm they were known for from last season and according to strength and conditioning coach Kaitlin Hunt that is to be expected.
"The problem comes with load management. Because there was condensed preparations, you're trying to do a lot of things in one," Hunt explained to Soccer Laduma.
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"There is that increase of overload, so you would load too much, so you can get things like injuries. The intensity of the training sessions as well, you'll encounter load management problems.
"If they play too many games too soon, sometimes the rhythm is not there, they have to build that rhythm again, the consistency they had from last season. It might take a lot of time to build that up," Hunt added.
