Baxter grateful for break so SuperSport can recover from glut of injuries

29 September 2016 - 17:54 By Mark Gleeson

The upcoming three-week break for SuperSport United is a most welcome opportunity to try and help the club get over a glut of injuries‚ said their coach Stuart Baxter. SuperSport have 10 players on the treatment table‚ including Cole Alexander (groin)‚ Clayton Daniels (broken arm)‚ Bradley Grobler (groin)‚ Grant Kekana (knee)‚ Fakry Lakay (broken ankle)‚ Tefu Mashamaite (knee) and Dove Wome (knee)‚ and were down to just 19 fit players on Wednesday when the played out a 1-1 draw away against Lamontville Golden Arrows.But they can now work on recuperation after spending nine nights down at the coast and playing three successive matches in KwaZulu-Natal‚ beating Maritzburg United last week and then drawing with Free State Stars on Saturday (in Durban) and Lamontville Golden Arrows on Wednesday.“The break is welcome … very‚ very welcome for us. I know we talk about continuity and this and that but we’ve had no continuity so far‚” Baxter said.“[New signing] Aubrey [Modiba] was on his last legs out there‚ he’s played a lot of football but had no real time‚ because of all the games‚ to get into the way we play.“He’s done really well for us. We’ve got the same with a couple of other players‚ who’ve played a lot but trained little. "This will give us a chance to sharpen the swords and lick our wounds and hopefully come back rejuvenated.”SuperSport will have an effective 18-day break before their next league encounter at home in Atteridgeville to newly-promoted Highlands Park.“We signed some players and we want to build on what we did last season. But then we’ve got these injuries and we’ve got draws in matches we should have won and games where we have played quite well. We should have got a lot more out of the games‚” Baxter lamented.“So at the moment I’m thinking we are just five or 10 percent off where we should be. It’s not that we are playing badly or that we don’t know what is going wrong.“We know what we have to do and its just five to 10 percent. Hopefully with a bit more continuity‚ a bit more at it‚ that five to 10 percent will swing and the one pointers will turn into three pointers.” - TMG Sport..

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