Toronto FC coach John Herdman has explained why South African Cassius Mailula has not seen a single minute of game time since the season kicked off.
The Major League Soccer (MLS) campaign began last month, but the former Mamelodi Sundowns star has yet to feature as he finds himself down the pecking order.
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The 22-year-old made the move to the Reds in July last year and it has not quite worked out as he would have perhaps hoped so far, having made just three appearances for the club thus far.
Mailula was named on the bench once more during his side's latest outing, a 2-1 defeat to New York City over the weekend. The South African was not used as a substitute, which has been the trend since the start of the campaign.
Explaining why the attacker has not been utilised, Herdman stated the former PSL winger is competing with top players in his position.
"Yeah, I think it is a number of things," he said per GOAL.
"One, you have Lorenzo [Insigne], [Federico] Bernardeschi and [Jonathan] Osorio in those what I call magician-type positions, that they are critical to the way we play.
"Their level is just too high, if Lorenzo comes off, Osorio will typically move into that position, if Bernardeschi goes out wide, Osorio will move in," the Englishman explained.
"So, for him (Mailula), he will have to wait for his moment when those players are unavailable or in a national week."
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