Mamelodi Sundowns co-coach Rulani Mokwena insists his players are pushing themselves beyond their limits as they prepare for their upcoming Nedbank Cup clash with Richards Bay FC on Friday.

The Brazilians will return to action after being drawn to face Richards Bay in the round of 32, which takes place at the Princess Magogo Stadium in Durban.

Masandawana have been gearing up in full force for the return of football following the PSL break in January, having last played on 23 December in a 1-1 draw with Marumo Gallants in the DStv Premiership.

The team returned to training in mid-January and have recently been participating in a training camp in Rustenburg as they prepare for the remainder of the season.

“The training camp has been good, we have been here now for five days. The first part we spent 10 days at Chloorkop to try working on the condition of the players as we did a lot of testing and also a lot of work with the video analysis reviewing the first part of the season,” Mokwena told his club’s official website.

“We are trying to make sure that we are working towards improving the team and improving the players so that we can improve the product. So, that work has continued and the players have responded exceptionally well. We’ve done some very good work on the pitch to try to improve certain areas of our overall performance.

“So far we’ve played a friendly match against Platinum City Rovers and the performance was very good and then one more game to go tomorrow where we will try to improve on today’s performance and the physical condition and some tactical schemes, particularly the new ones that we’ve introduced for the for the second half of the season.”

The Sundowns mentor went on to praise his side for putting in the work as they prepare to face Richards Bay in the Nedbank Cup round of 32.

“I think probably the one standout is definitely the attitude and the willingness from the players to go beyond the threshold to put themselves in a lot of stress and to put themselves in conditions where they are pushed,” he added.

“When the body is under fatigue, or lactic acid, the system is affected and therefore the decision-making is not so good. So the plan is to work a bit more with regard to sustaining the quality of the actions and trying to minimise the recovery between the football actions. And then, when you can do that, you tried to improve the regularity, the intensity, the longevity of good football actions.

“We are very happy with the attitude of the players and that, for me, is the biggest turnout. The players are pushing themselves beyond their limits and really making sure that they will improve not just as a team and as a collective, but also as individuals and that’s been probably the greatest highlight from the camp.”