Pitso won't rush Coetzee back from injury

Cape Town - Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane says he has no plans to rush Bafana Bafana defender Rivaldo Coetzee back into first-team football.

Coetzee joined the Brazilians in the off-season after a foot injury prevented him from completing a dream move to Scottish  champions Celtic.

Having been on the sidelines for the past five months after a successful operation, the 21-year-old has started light training with the first team, but Mosimane says he will be nurtured back to full fitness.

"Rivaldo is still in the doctor's ward, we are waiting for him," Mosimane told reporters. "He must get well and we don't stress about that. We don't have to have him to play now.

"We have [Motjeka] Madisha, Ricardo [Nascimento], Wayne Arendse, Bangaly Soumahoro, who is coming back, probably, in five days.

"So we don't put Rivaldo under stress, we didn't bring him to win the league now. We brought him to go on in the future because he is very young.

"Ricardo is not very young, Wayne Arendse too, we have to manage that. We also have very experienced centre-backs like Thabo Nthethe, but they are all over 30, so we bring in players to replace [in the future]."

Masandawana who are threatening to run away with the league next take on Orlando Pirates in an Absa Premiership clash at Loftus Versveld Stadium on Saturday.

Kick off is at 15:30.