Sundowns Boss Calms Saavedra Fears

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi has allayed fears that marquee signing Erwin Saavedra could suffer a similar fate as Mauricio Affonso.

Saavedra joined Sundowns in the mid-season transfer window for a fee believed to be in the region of R12-million from Bolivar where he was the club captain and rated as one of the nation’s finest talents.

He put pen to paper on a two-year deal with a two-year option to extend but has been limited to just 85 minutes after suffering an injury in his CAF Champions League debut against Al Hilal shortly after his arrival.

It’s brought in questions about Affonso, who also arrived with high expectations back in August 2021 and despite showing promise in the early stages of his career in South Africa, he departed with just six goals in 22 games before Peter Shalulile was roped in as their new main striker.

Mngqithi admits they may have rushed Saavedra’s return with his injury worse than initially feared and will now not look to risk him further, but denied there are concerns about his long-term future with Masandawana.

“Saavedra is definitely going to play many matches for us, it’s unfortunate that the injury he got when we played Al Hilal, we all took it for granted, we thought he would recover very quickly but unfortunately it has taken a bit of time,” he said at Chloorkop on Thursday afternoon.

“He’s back in full training now, but we’re just worried because he’s lost a lot of time in terms of training and we don’t want to have him going back… if he gets a chance in one of the last two matches it would be good but if not, it’s not because he’s injured.

“He’s okay now, started training with the team [again] but we’re not too sure at this stage whether it’s a good idea to try and rope him in and risk the potential of him going back when we have a chance to prepare him properly. He came to us without injury, we’re optimistic he will play many games for us and rest assured we have a very good player.”

Saavedra, who is comfortable in midfield or anywhere on the right flank, scored 23 goals and registered 20 assists in 93 games for his former club Bolivar across all competitions.

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