Nasreddine Nabi has shared his thoughts on the return of defender Edmilson Dove, who played his first match of the season in Kaizer Chiefs' defeat to Mamelodi Sundowns.
Despite suffering a 1-0 loss to Sundowns courtesy of a first-half Lucas Ribeiro strike on Saturday, Chiefs will have found some comfort in seeing several of their previously injured players feature.
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Edmilson Dove, Dillan Solomons and Ashley Du Preez all marked their respective returns to competitive action at Lucas Moripe Stadium after long injury lay-offs.
For Mozambican Dove, the situation was somewhat more complex, as he had not played a single minute of competitive football in 2024/25, having suffered an injury during pre-season training in Turkey.
He was subsequently not registered in the squad for the first part of the season, but following the steady progress in his recovery, was reportedly registered in December and has been building up match fitness.
"I have to congratulate him because it is not easy to get into this kind of game and play 90 minutes with the intensity we played at after eight months of injury," said Nabi.
"It requires a lot of mindset and [to] play with a big character. Defensively, he gave us a very good balance. So, offensively, we couldn't ask him everything in one day, but he managed to finish the 90 minutes.
"He is also a player that hasn't played a lot. But since December, he has been training consistently with his teammates and we saw that today he played well," he continued.
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The dreadlocked man will be a welcome addition to the squad with left-back being a problematic position at Naturena.
Meanwhile, Saturday's defeat means Amakhosi have lost three of their last five league matches.