Tinkler almost left Mayo on bench for Chiefs clash

Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler admitted he considered leaving top marksman Khanyisa Mayo on the bench for Saturday’s DStv Premiership clash at home to Kaizer Chiefs.

Mayo only returned from international duty on Thursday afternoon, after playing for South Africa in their Fifa Series tournament in Algeria.

“I was considering not starting him, because it's brutal,” said Tinkler in reference to the arduous travel that Mayo went through with the national team.

“In Algeria, it was probably an hour or hour and a half’s drive to the airport. Then a six hour flight to Dubai. Then it's a four hour layover in Dubai. Then it's a flight to Joburg. And then it's another two hours before he comes back home to Cape Town,” said Tinkler.

“He arrived on Thursday afternoon. On Friday he came to training and I was considering not starting him.

“But at the same time, I have the youngster Jody Lee (Ahshene). How fair is it to throw Jody into the deep end right from the first whistle.”

Ahsehe came on for his debut as a second half replacement for Mayo in Saturday’s goalless draw at the Athlone Stadium.

“I sat with Mayo and said to him, you know, “how do you feel?’. He said he felt rested. He went to a Cryogenic session, which we hoped would obviously help him.

“But even if you've done a cryo session, somewhere along the line it was going to happen that he would get tired. Whether I started him or if I didn't, there was always going to be fatigue in his legs.

“But I chose to start him and he struggled. But he is our top goal scorer and that I cannot ignore.”