Did ex-Pirates star make a mistake? Van Rooyen’s situation explained: ‘Sundowns don’t expose players’

Mamelodi Sundowns are yet to give former Orlando Pirates defender Deano van Rooyen his debut despite joining the team way back in September.

The 29-year-old made a shock decision to leave the Premier Soccer League defending champions after coach Abdeslam Ouaddou failed to guarantee him regular playing time.

Masandawana snapped him up as a free agent before adding Thabang Matuludi to strengthen the right-back position. The department needed another player following Khuliso Mudau’s injury that has seen him miss several months of action.

Thapelo Morena has also been given his chance while Van Rooyen is in the cold. Coach Miguel Cardoso has since explained why the former Stellenbosch skipper has not been given his chance.

Competition locking Van Rooyen out?

“Regarding Deano, he’s a player who, when he arrived, was handled with high priority in terms of his preparation. We understand where he is physically and mentally; we are also looking to create the right conditions so that when he plays, he can excel and show his best qualities,” Cardoso responded when asked about the player.

“It’s our way of thinking for a player; we don’t expose the player to the public environment when we don’t feel a player is ready for that because football is the public environment of performance.

“As you may imagine, the competition is quite high not only for him but for Zuko [Mdunyelwa]. Thabang arrived and settled very quickly in the team, and we didn’t know how things were going to be when we brought one after the other.

“Obviously, Thabang picked up the pace more quickly, and we don’t know how it will be in the next moment. Today [Tuesday], he [Van Rooyen] played in a friendly match, and he was quite okay. We are happy at the moment, and we know that there are players who are not playing as much as we would like,” the Portuguese tactician concluded.