Nafuzi Zain is sweating on the fitness of Syamim Yahya following the latter's knee injury that makes him 50-50 for the vital return leg at Tan Sri Dato Haji Hassan Yunos Stadium on Saturday. Syamim's fitness is not up to par yet for Nafuzi to rely on the experienced player, what with the player last featuring against PKNS FC in a Group A match early last month.
With a place in the Malaysia Cup semi-final at stake, Nafuzi is understandably reluctant to take unnecessary risk with a player who isn't fully fit; but if improvements are shown in the coming days, Syamim may yet have a role to play against Johor Darul Ta'zim.
"I have to see first what condition Syamim is in, during the training these two days to make sure he's fully recovered from injury. Besides he only joined training these past few days and his physical fitness level isn't convincing yet for me to field him an important match against JDT.
"Maybe in the final 20 minutes I can consider to put him into the action if he shows positive fitness improvements in the coming sessions. I'm still positive despite trailing 1-0 because for me both teams have equal chance to go through. We have to be aggressive in attack and in defence but JDT currently hold the advantage," said Nafuzi.
In the first leg played at Sultan Ismail Nasiruddin Shah Stadium last weekend, JDT picked up their first win over Terengganu FC this 2019 season, having seen previous two matches in the Super League ended in scored draws. Diogo Luis Santo became the hero in Kuala Terengganu with a splendid strike in the first half to give JDT a vital away goal.
The two teams met in the semi-final stage of the Malaysia Cup last season where TFC emerged victorious, so Nafuzi at least knows a positive result for his team is not entirely impossible and it will depend on his team being able to give 100% at Larkin come Saturday.
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