Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena has provided an update on their progress during their preparations for the upcoming 2022-23 season.

The Brazilians reported back to Chloorkop to begin their pre-season training at the beginning of the month after a four-week break.

The following week, the players and technical team took the field for the first week-long field sessions at Chloorkop before travelling to Rustenburg for the second phase of their pre-season prep.

Masandawana will play their first pre-season exhibition match against Richards Bay FC in the Prince Mangosuthu Legacy Cup semi-finals, scheduled in KwaZulu-Natal for Saturday, 23 July.

“The first week of our pre-season [included] intense testing,” Mokwena told his club’s official website.

“The work that is done by not just our medical department but also from the conditioning department in assessing the players’ physiology and the physical readiness of the players to take part in full team training, we were very satisfied with that and the information that we received was very good.”

The Brazilians are now in Royal Marang in Rustenburg for the next phase of their pre-season preparations ahead of their MTN8 competition.

“The camp in Marang gives us a lot of possibilities, we are not people that train in isolation or train different elements or factors that contribute to the performance,” he added.

“From day one already we were working with the physical aspects, but already introducing a new tactical and technical concept that we’d like to work on and to improve.

“These were ideas that we had already from last season; there were things that we felt we had the condition to be better at, but maybe we didn’t have the possibility.

“Now that we have a bit of time to train and to prepare the team, we focus a lot more on the tactical aspects and try to make sure that we prepare the team in that regard because during the season we don’t have the time to prepare and train.”