Orlando Pirates have the smallest workload in the Betway Premiership top five on paper and the heaviest one in front of them this week.

Start with the squad. Provider reports on the wire say South Africa winger Mohau Nkota has rejoined Pirates on a season-long loan from Al Ettifaq, the Saudi Pro League club that signed him a year ago. That is a returning face rather than a new name learning the place, and it lands at the point in the calendar where depth starts to decide things.

Because the fixtures are stacking up. The same provider coverage reports Pirates were held to a 0-0 draw by La Cure Waves in Mauritius in the first leg of their CAF Champions League preliminary round tie, with the second leg at home on Saturday. A goalless away leg is not a disaster, but it does mean the tie is still completely open and Pirates cannot treat Saturday as a formality.

Around that they have league work. Our fixture list has Pirates at home to Durban City on Thursday at 19:30, then away to Marumo Gallants on Sunday at 15:00. Three matches in six days, two of them in a league where they are currently chasing.

The table explains why none of it can be shrugged off. Mamelodi Sundowns sit top on 20 points from eight matches. Pirates are second on 13 from five, with a goal difference of plus 11, which is the second best number in the division and the clearest sign that when they play, they usually win comfortably. The catch has always been the games in hand. Games in hand only help you if you actually play them, and now they are arriving in clusters with continental football wedged in between.

Marumo Gallants, Sunday's hosts, are 16th on two points. Durban City are still hunting a first win of the season. On form those are two matches Pirates should take six from. On scheduling, they are two matches sandwiched around a midweek continental load this squad has not carried yet this season.

For anyone filling in the Thursday and Sunday cards, that Saturday tie is the variable worth thinking about. Rotation after a tight 0-0 in Mauritius could easily change what a Pirates front line looks like by Sunday afternoon, and a 3-0 prediction and a 1-0 prediction are worth very different points.