Pitso Mosimane has insisted “there are no excuses” after his Al Ahly side suffered the heaviest defeat since he took over the club.
The ‘Club of the Century’ lost 3-0 to Smouha in the Egyptian League Cup on Thursday, despite having several key players such as Percy Tau, Mohamed Magdy Afsha, Hussein El-Shahat and Taher Mohamed Taher back in the line-up.
The defeat comes after Al Ahly had drawn their previous three League Cup games with a makeshift team of youngsters and perhaps was a wake-up call before the FIFA Club World Cup.
“There are no excuses, but we have players who contracted Covid-19, in addition many players coming back from the Arab Cup aren’t fully fit yet,” Mosimane said, as per Kingfut.
“Let’s not forget that many of our players in the Africa Cup of Nations have suffered severe injuries.
“This is a difficult situation, of course, and we have nine days before the Club World Cup. I hope that everyone will be back and fully fit.
“We are still waiting because those who have returned after contracting Corona have lost a lot of weight.
“This was not a friendly match and we are not making excuses, but as I said we have players who are not available.”
The FIFA Club World Cup kicks off on 3 February and Al Ahly will travel with Thursday’s squad plus Aliou Dieng unless Egypt get knocked out of the African Cup of Nations against Morocco on the weekend, which would see a few other first-team players return to the squad in time.
