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Cape Town - SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter has revealed that Tefu Mashamaite is back in training, but conceded that he will not available for selection just yet.
Masha, as the player is affectionately known, completed his move to Matsatsantsa from Swedish side BK Hacken on the final day of transfer deadline day, but will most likely play no part in the first half of SuperSport's 2016/17 campaign.
"Masha has started training properly and we thought he would be out for an operation but we've put that off," Baxter told KickOff.
"We are going to wait until the Christmas term to see if he can strengthen [his knee] and we hope he can be back, but he's certainly not selectable yet.
"It's a difficult one because there's a piece of bone and it was floated in his knee, and the surgeon said 'He can continue or we can strengthen the whole knee and see if he manages,' but he's done one full training and he didn't have any pain.
"We are hopeful that we can build it up and get through, but at anytime we could be saying, 'no it's not working out so he needs the operation.' So it's a minor operation."
The former Kaizer Chiefs mentor also took the time to explain the omission of veteran David Mathebula from his squad, citing the midfielder's lack of continuous pre-season training.
"David has had a compromised pre-season. He has had injuries, and at this moment he is not selectable," Baxter explained.
"He's not fit enough to take over from Dean [Furman] or 'Yeye'... He's not fit enough, basically. He's had an injury and I think he's played one Multichoice Diski Challenge game.
"He missed a lot of the pre-season games so David, first of all, will get himself into real match condition and then put himself in contention along with the rest of the team because he is a member of our squad," he concluded.
