Zwane explains Billiat substitution after long-awaited return

Head coach Arthur Zwane has explained why Khama Billiat's long-awaited return lasted under ten minutes before being replaced as Kaizer Chiefs lost to Cape Town City.

Chiefs ended their DStv Premiership campaign with a 1-0 defeat to the Citizens at FNB Stadium on Saturday courtesy of a Mduduzi Mdantsane's first-half goal.

The day also marked a return for Billiat, who has been sidelined due to a groin injury since October last year and got his opportunity in the first-half when striker Ashley Du Preez sustained an injury and was stretched off late in the first half.

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However, Billiat's return would last only a few minutes as the 33-year-old was replaced by Mduduzi Shabalala when Amakhosi emerged from the tunnel for the second-half.

Zwane has since provided some clarity on the attacker's brief appearance.

"It's sad when you see a quality player like Khama suffering from injuries,' Zwane said.

"He was actually supposed to come back about two weeks back and we anticipated that he should be ready just a week before the semi-final and we wanted to build him up.

"To be quite honest, even today, if we had all our players available, we wouldn't have risked Khama. The plan to be quite honest was to him to play 20 minutes and then build him up going forward.

"Unfortunately, we found ourselves in a situation where we didn't have a striker when we lost Ash and we needed a player of his quality.

"I even said to him, 'listen, I don't want you to make too many runs because we are trying to build you. We need your quality in holding the ball and connecting with whoever that is coming and then create space, we didn't expect him to be as explosive as we know him.

"Now if you lose such players, you lose Ash. You will recall, at some point, Ash was out when we needed him for very important games. Khama and most of the senior payers were not available due to injuries or sicknesses and unforeseen circumstances, or personal reasons.

"We had to obviously play our part as a club to make sure that they are in the right frame of mind whenever they are given the opportunity to play or whenever they are available to play.

"But yes, it's been the story of our season, where we couldn't have a consistent line-up because of those injuries. 

"As much as we wanted to build the team around a certain core of individuals, we couldn't, because those experienced players, those quality players were not available."

"Now the responsibility was on the shoulders of young players, who at some point were bound to crack because of the pressure."

The loss was a fourth straight defeat for Zwane's side who end their campaign without a single piece of silverware and can only finish as high as fifth on the log.

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