But the 53-year-old mentor refused to make excuses as the KwaZulu-Natal side are just days away from their opening Betway Premiership encounter against Cape Town City at Harry Gwala Stadium next weekend.

The FIFA ban aside, Maduka has standards to uphold.

"It's difficult. Each and every coach wants to try and reinforce the team here and there, with not so many players, but you want to have players," said Maduka.

"You want a striker to score more goals, and you want a midfielder who can be influential to the team, a defender who can help, and those up and coming youngsters.

"So it's always crucial that we can't sign, but at the end of the day, it's also an opportunity for the young ones, but we need patience with them because things cannot just happen overnight – they need patience and time.

"Again, we have to try as much as we can not to put too much pressure on them or try to rely on them a lot, but try to rely more on the few experienced players that we have so that they can help the young players going forward."

Maduka admitted he also faces the challenge of keeping the players on their toes.

"It's always tricky, especially if the player knows that he cannot leave the team and we can't sign, but I still believe they are professional players who have a professional manner to do well," he added.

"As a team, and as a coach, we try as much as we can to demand results. As much as there are results demanded by our employees, it's very important for us to demand results for the players to make sure they do perform week in and week out.

"But it's always difficult to motivate players when they know we cannot reinforce the team, but, like I said, we hope and believe these are professionals and they will be able to do as requested of them."

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