Former Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic believes the Absa Premiership title race was heating up before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kaizer Chiefs were leading the pack in the league standings with 48 points, while Mamelodi Sundowns were four points behind the log leaders in second place before all football was halted.

Meanwhile, Pirates and SuperSport United are in third and fourth places with 40 apiece, with both having an outside chance of lifting the PSL title at the end of the season.

The Serbian mentor believes the players are roaring to take the pitch, and will bounce back stronger once the 2019-20 season resumes.

‘The South African PSL title race was getting very hot. But at the same moment we need to know that this lockdown is a major force above us and beyond us,’ Sredojevic told FARPost.

‘And everyone [players] staying in isolation and quarantine I believe that they are in full action [training], they will be ready once all this has passed and [when] all come back to normality and we go back to competition.

‘I am convinced and believe knowing how each team is expertly led from the point of fitness, from the point of football that they are hungry for football [and] they will bounce back stronger. And if PSL is supposed to continue, we shall see one of the hottest title races ever.

‘I personally believe that when this [lockdown] ends we shall witness very good football and coming back strong and hungry for the game.’