Following Kaizer Chiefs’ woeful defensive performance in the loss against Orlando Pirates, Giovanni Solinas has revealed why defender Daniel Cardoso didn’t feature in the Soweto derby.

Solinas has constantly changed his defensive pairing this season with Siyabonga Ngezana, Eric Mathoho, Mario Booysen, Cardoso and Teenage Hadebe all catching game time at some point.

Goals by Innocent Maela and Vincent Pule either side of a strike by Khama Billiat ensured that Pirates extend their recent derby dominance against Chiefs.

When asked about the absence of Cardoso, the Italian mentor revealed that he did not field the former Free State Stars defender in fear of chopping and changing the defence too much.

‘Also in this department [centre backs] we don’t change for the sake of changing. We change because of injured players‚’ Solinas told the media.

‘For example‚ with Daniel Cardoso‚ he stayed 10 days without training because he had a gastro problem.

‘It’s a virus. And he also stayed separated from his teammates‚ because it was contagious.

‘And he has not trained for 10 days. He has lost weight because he has not eaten [properly]. So it was not possible to play with Daniel,’ he claimed.

Chiefs turn their focus to the Telkom Knockout Cup quarter-finals where they will do duty against SuperSport United at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Sunday afternoon with kick-off set for 3pm.

Photo: Backpagepix