Mamelodi Sundowns called off their first scheduled training session in Osaka citing player fatigue after their marathon flight from Johannesburg to Japan.

The team arrived in Japan close to midnight to represent Africa in the Club World Cup and was scheduled to have its first training session at the Nagai Ball Game Field at 19:30 on Wednesday evening, but on the advice of its medical staff the training was called off.

The squad had travelled over 22 hours when they landed in Osaka and it was clear that the jet lag had taken a severe toll on the players.

Doctor Carl Tabane, the Sundowns team doctor said, ‘in layman terms jet lag can be described as extreme tiredness and other physical effects felt by a person after a long flight across different time zones. The human body clock takes some time to adjust to the new time zone as in this case being ahead by 7 hours to South Africa. It will get better with a managed program and the players will adjust within a day or two.’

The club’s communications coordinator Thulani Thuswa said, ‘all the players were very fatigued and on medical advice it was the best decision taken in the interests of the wellbeing of our players. Training will resume tomorrow at the same venue at 19:30.Rest assured that Sundowns remain very focused and we are here to win and do Africa proud.’