AmaZulu has confirmed that Tapuwa Kapini, Sadney Urikhob and Ruzaigh Gamildien have been ruled out of the team’s upcoming game against Orlando Pirates.

The three players are struggling with injuries, and Usuthu want to make history under Craig Rosslee by completing a double over Pirates this season when the two sides meet at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Thursday night.

AmaZulu beat Pirates 1-0 in the first round courtesy of a goal from former Pirates striker, Bongani Ndulula, when the two teams met back in August of 2013.

“It’s unfortunate that we have three players who are unavailable for the first game against Pirates, which makes our squad a bit thin again. We’ve lost Gamildien to an ankle injury and Sadney broke a bone in his foot; so he’s out again. Kapini suffered a serious concussion so we’re taking the necessary precaution because he’s taking a while to come up to speed. We’ll only put him back into training once we’ve received a green light from the doctors; we don’t want to take a risk and make a mistake,” AmaZulu coach Craig Rosslee told the club’s official website.

The former Pirates assistant coach believes that his side will do well against the Buccaneers.

“It was always going to be a tough match but it’s going to be even tougher now that they lost this past weekend. We also beat them in the first round in a game they would’ve felt they should’ve won; so we’re expecting them to come out firing. They’re obviously looking to catch up and they are under pressure; but we’re all under pressure for different reasons in this league and we also have our own targets. We’d like to go out there and play well at home, compete strongly for the ball and back it up by being solid defensively,” Rosslee told amazulufc.net.