Orlando Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou explained why striker Sebastian Pedersen hasn’t featured for the club yet.
Pirates signed Pedersen from Norwegian club Sogndal Fotbal for an undisclosed transfer fee a month ago.
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But despite huge expectations from the club’s fans, the 27-year-old hasn’t made his official debut and neither the match day squad for the Buccaneers yet.
Ahead of the MTN8 semi-final first leg against Sekhukhune United, Ouaddou explained why Pedersen hasn’t featured yet.
“I think there is a lot of excitement around his value, and we’re happy, of course, when we see his data in his previous clubs, and when we see that what we need in our game and when you know that last season in Africa Pirates were the team who create the most chances in the continent that the average of conversion was low, let’s say poor, and we we needed to find some solutions,” Ouaddou said on Thursday.
“So he is the man that the scouting department has seen maybe to help us. At the moment, I think he is really happy to join Pirates. We saw a lot of happiness, a lot of excitement from him in training.
“We can see definitely that he has the quality to finish, definitely. I don’t need one month to see that he’s a finisher. Now the question mark is again whether he can put his qualities on the on the table and to show his qualities it’s important to be fit and in that area he is not 100%.
“The performance department is working closely with him to have him fully ready. And one area that is very important as well and I’m very cautious because I was in that situation. You know, when you travel, when you’re professional football player, and you go into a new environment, in a new country, there is a time of integration.
“There is this stress of discovering the environment. You have to eat differently. There is a new environment, so a lot of things change, and it’s not kind of physical. It’s here, it’s mental.
“So these things you have to be careful about and take time to integrate him because we don’t want to risk any injury.
“So I’m like you, I want to see him on the pitch, but at the same time, as a coach, I cannot just throw him in the fire, and then maybe the fire can burn him.”
The 27-year old scored 21 goals in 45 appearances for Sogndal Fotbal.