Mamelodi Sundowns soccer coach Miguel Cardoso sounded upbeat that key midfielder Teboho Mokoena might be available for Saturday’s MTN8 final against Orlando Pirates, but stressed that all three of his Bafana Bafana injury concerns would be determined by last-minute decisions.
Mokoena joined his teammates in Wednesday’s training session at the Downs base in Chloorkop, Midrand, ahead of the final at Moses Mabhida Stadium (kickoff 6pm).
Central midfielders Mokoena and Bathusi Aubaas and left-back Aubrey Modiba picked up injuries in Bafana’s three matches in last week’s Fifa window that marked the return of Pitso Mosimane for his second stint as national coach.
Bafana beat Guinea 2-1 in Orlando and then thrashed Eritrea 5-0 in Cairo to put themselves top of group D after two games in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Former Sundowns coach Mosimane showed a willingness to build a good relationship with club coaches, indicating he would rest Downs and Pirates players with Saturday’s MTN8 final in mind as he threw in youngsters in a 1-0 friendly win against Egypt in Cairo on Sunday.
Cardoso was asked at a media day on Wednesday about Mosimane’s gesture.
“As I said from the beginning, I support the national team, the national coach and the players when they are in that work,” the Portuguese said.
"And you will never hear me commenting on the words of the national coach.”
“He’s the one who has to speak on his platform; I will speak on my platform so that I will never allow anything to be misunderstood.
“What I want you to understand is that I will never put a player to play unless he’s 100% fit.
"Yesterday, we had the first evaluation of the [injured Bafana] players; they were seen by doctors, and today we’ll have a better opportunity to check them.
“I believe those cases will be until the last minute, but as you understand, we cannot risk it, especially with muscle injuries like the ones for Aubrey and Aubaas.
“I’m not saying they are not [ready], because there are signs the rehabilitation was quite good.
“But let’s see. As I said, those will be last-minute decisions because we also have to think about not only this game, but also the effect this game can have on the rest of the season.”
Saturday’s final has all the ingredients to be a classic.
Pirates are South African soccer’s latter-day cup kings, having won six domestic titles in the last four seasons.
They upended Sundowns’ eight-season Betway Premiership title run in 2025/2026, a season where, in Moroccan coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s first campaign, Pirates lifted a first treble and league title since doing that twice in succession in 2011 and 2012.
Downs made up for last season’s domestic and league disappointments by lifting their second Caf Champions League trophy and, in a strong start to this campaign, won the 2026 African-Asian-Pacific Cup, beating Al Ahli Saudi last month.
