SuperSport United will have to find a way of negotiating the challenge facing them in the next five weeks as they seek to keep both their DStv Premiership and CAF Confederation Cup interests alive.
Gavin Hunt has crucial decisions to make in how to balance his squad with eight fixtures to be played in the next five weeks including two long trips to North Africa.
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Hunt is already feeling the headache of how he will jungle the first trip to Cairo, Egypt this weekend where they have their first Confederation Cup match against Morden Future on Sunday.
That game will be played at the Al Salaam Stadium (15h00).
What will worry Hunt is that on Wednesday he faces Mamelodi Sundowns in a game that he desperately needs to win to keep the champions within sight in the DStv Premiership.
SuperSport sit just a point behind Sundowns in the domestic league though they have played four matches more than the newly crowned African Football League champions.
This means that for the trip to Cairo, Hunt could opt for the non-regular but experienced pair of Washington Arubi and Onsimor Bhasera to lead the younger crew while the rest of the regulars stay behind to enable them to be super fresh for Wednesday's Tshwane derby.
The challenge with travel to Cairo from Johannesburg is that only Egypt Air has a directed flight which travels for almost nine hours but does so on selected days.
With the rest of the airlines, they must go via Addias Ababa, Doha, or Doha which could takes travel time up to a maximum of 24 hours.
After Future and Sundowns, SuperSport have USM Alger next on December 3 after which they have another long trip to Benghazi, Libya where Sudanese giants Al Hilal are playing their home games due to political issues back home.
The game against Al Hilal is on December and the complication is that there are no direct flights from Johannesburg to Benghazi with travel a minimal 15 hours on the quickest route using Egypt Air via Cairo while it could stretch over 30 hours on other options with two stops.
After travelling to Benghazi, SuperSport must come back for the short visit to Moroka Swallows on December 13 before they host Al Hilal on December 20.
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Three days later they welcome Orlando Pirates before with a trip to KwaZulu-Natal for a date with Richards Bay on December 30.
By then they will have played four games in the Confederation Cup and another four in the domestic league.
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