Orlando Pirates coach Milutin Sredojevic insist they are being ‘cautious and patient’ as  goalkeeper Joris Delle continues to mend his way back to full fitness.

The 29-year-old joined Pirates as a free agent after his contract at Dutch Eredivisie side Feyenoord expired at the end of the 2018-19 season.

The French shot-stopper came in to replace Jackson Mabokgwane, who was released from  his contract with the club before joining Bloemfontein Celtic.

Delle has an abundance of experience under his belt playing for the likes of Metz, Nice and Lens in France, Club Brugge in Belgium as well as NEC and Feyenoord in the Netherlands.

However, Delle is current un the process of recovering from a hamstring injury and is yet to make his debut for the Buccaneers.

Sredojevic insists that the club will not rush Delle into making a premature return as they do not want to aggravate his injury even further.

‘I need to be sincere, he’s coming from a higher level than ours, and his adjustment is much easier. However, the point is that he picked up a hamstring injury, which is what has kept him out of contention,’ Sredojevic told the media.

‘He’s still not at his level best because it was an issue of, after training he was working hard in order to do extra things and exactly in the last sprint he was pulling his muscle.

‘It is something uncontrollable. If it was with us in training, it would be very much of a concern, but he was training by himself and it was self-inflicted, so we need to be cautious and patient.

‘Rushing the player with an injury of such a kind could bring further risk of missing him for a longer period of time.’

Orlando Pirates will now turn their attention to the MTN8 when they welcome Highlands Park to the Orlando Stadium on Saturday with kick off set for 6pm.