Centreback Buhle Mkhwanazi will start for Bidvest Wits in Saturday’s Telkom Knockout semifinal against Kaizer Chiefs despite having played just five minutes of top-flight football returning from a six-month layoff.
Wits coach Hunt said with captain Thulani Hlatshwayo doubtful with a bruised toe‚ and Nazeer Allie out with a pulled hamstring‚ injury-hit Wits have no option but to start Mkhwanazi at Bidvest Stadium on Saturday (kickoff: 3.30pm).
Mkhwanazi and Hlatshwayo’s centre partnership was the backbone on which Wits’ first league championship last season was built.
They scraped home without Mkhwanazi from May‚ but his absence this season set off a string of central defensive mishaps that have been as instrumental in Wits’ poor start to 2017-18.
“Well we don’t have anything else‚ do we? It’s either him or me‚” Hunt quipped on whether Mkhwanazi would play.
“I played him in a Diski [reserve] match on the weekend‚ so he’s had that‚ and we had a friendly on Tuesday [against Pretoria City]‚ but those are always different to playing games so you never know.”