Former Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United midfielder Thandani Ntshumayelo looks to make a sensational return to top-flight football after serving a ban for the use of cocaine.

The midfielder tested positive for cocaine in 2016 while playing for the Soweto giants and was subsequently handed a four-year ban which looked to have effectively ended his football career.

Bibo was handed a lifeline after he successfully appealed his ban – with the South African Institute for Drug-Free Sport (Saids) reducing his sentence to two years – which he has already served.

In a bid to get his career moving once again, Gavin Hunt invited Ntshumayelo to train with the former Absa Premiership champions.

‘The ball is literally in his court now,’ Bibo’s former agent Tim Sukazi told the Mail and Guardian.

‘This is one player who was doubted by many people at the start of his career. I guess many people never understood his style of play but he proved them wrong.

‘When the news of his banning broke, we were very devastated because we never saw it coming and he came to my offices on numerous occasions after that and I had to motivate him to look forward,’ he added.

Hunt has backed the midfielder to get back to his best.

‘I’m helping him to get fit. I’m the one who gave him his professional debut and I have been in communication with him throughout the two years he was suspended.

‘Everybody deserves a chance in life. Right now he’s training with us but I don’t want to talk much about that now,’ he concluded.

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