With Ricardo Nascimento’s departure opening up a foreign spot in the squad at Mamelodi Sundowns, co-coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed that new signing Erwin Saavedra will arrive at Chloorkop this week.

The Brazilians confirmed the signing of the Bolivia international just before the January window closed. Saavedra has just finished his national team duty as a part of Bolivia’s squad for the Fifa World Cup qualifiers, playing in matches against Venezuela and Chile, while he was also involved in the friendly international against Trinidad and Tobago in the last international break.

With Downs restarting the local calendar with a 2-0 win over Chippa United on Monday night, Mokwena revealed that Saavedra will land in South Africa on Tuesday, 8 February and will head to Chloorkop on Thursday, for medical tests and his first meeting with his new employers.

“We are excited by the profile of the players that comes. He is a very good player who comes into a very good team and we are looking forward to inducting him into the processes and the work that we do. Saavedra, as you all know, played for Bolivia in the qualifiers on Tuesday [last week]. He then had to work to get the necessary travel documents, including Covid tests. He left Bolivia, went to Peru and then to the Netherlands. So, you are talking about +- 20 hours in transit, in travelling to South Africa,” Mokwena told media after the win over Chippa United on Monday night.

“He arrives in the very late hours tomorrow [Tuesday]. So, when we resume for training on Wednesday, he would have just arrived. He would have put his feet down on South African land. Hopefully he will join us by Thursday. We will induct him into the club. We will work in terms of all the other medical procedures that need to be done and familiarise him with our training and the squad and the processes regarding to our preparation. Then we will take it from there. Hopefully, we can incorporate him into the match day as soon as possible. We are patient and excited. This is not just big for Mamelodi Sundowns, it’s big for South African football, because if you can bring this type of profile of player, the bigger beneficiaries are the South African public.”