The Buccaneers welcome Leopards to Orlando Stadium for their CAF Confederation Cup group match and Ovono is the only goalkeeper available for Pirates for the match.
Initially, Pirates registered Brighton Mhlongo and Philani Zikalala for the competition but Mhlongo is out for eight weeks after undergoing successful knee surgery to repair his torn Anterior Cartilage Ligament.
Zikalala, on the other hand, has moved to Golden Arrows and Siyabonga Mpontshane is not registered for the Confederation Cup.
Tinkler admits that he was forced to play Mpontshane in Tuesday’s 4-1 win over Chippa United because he feared Ovono could have been injured, and Pirates would have headed to Saturday’s match against Leopards without a goalkeeper.
“We only have one goalkeeper [for Saturday] and obviously it is not an ideal situation but it is a situation we find ourselves in, hence the fact that I was protecting Ovono. He’s been on the bench when Brighton [Mhlongo] plays and you would think that he would have started [against Chippa] but I had that fear because we could go to that game without a goalkeeper,” he says.
READ: Masuku, Jomo, Phungwayo to return
The former Bafana Bafana midfielder has been in the same situation previously, albeit as a player, during his playing days for Barnsley in England.
Tinkler recalls: “I will give you an example of what happened to me, funny enough. Playing in the Championship you were only allowed four substitutes on the bench in those days and the coach at the time preferred to have four outfield players on the bench, so he would make me stay with the goalkeeper coach twice a week doing goalkeeping and if the situation happened I would need to go in goal, but thankfully it never happened.
“And I’m hoping it won’t happen on Saturday, but we have already identified someone,” he adds, without giving away the player’s name.