Partizan Worried as Ze Trains Alone Before Kostanay Trip

While the rest of the squad prepared for the trip to Kazakhstan, one player worked apart from the group. Zeferson Marinho dos Santos, known simply as Ze around Humska, trained individually again, two days before the return leg against Tobol. For coach Sasa Ilic this is not an injury with a clear deadline, but one that comes back just when it seemed to be gone.

The problem has an exact starting date. The Brazilian picked it up in Sabac, away to Macva, when he had to leave the pitch after just over an hour of play. Front thigh. He then missed several training sessions before rejoining full team work early in the week, and it looked like the issue was behind him. In the meantime it flared up again.

The same injury kept him out of the first leg against the Kazakh side in Belgrade. It has not been labeled serious for now, and that is the only part of the story working in Partizan’s favor. The forward still has two days to make himself available to the coach.

108 Minutes, Not a Single Goal

The number that best sums up his start in black and white is 108 minutes. That is how much time Ze has logged since arriving at Humska, and in those 108 minutes he is yet to score. A striker brought in to reinforce the attack has not even reached his first real run of matches, and he is already in his second round of recovery from the same problem.

That is why a possible absence in Kostanay is not just a question of one name on the travel list. Partizan head to Kazakhstan with a thinner attacking rotation, while the hosts play at home with nothing left to protect.

Why Did Both Partizan and Tobol Postpone Their League Games?

Because for both sides, this two legged tie is worth more than a single round of the domestic league. Tobol pushed back its league match against Kaisar for the same reason, as previously reported, and Partizan moved its away fixture against Radnicki Nis for the same reason. When two clubs from two different leagues make the same call in the same week, the logic is identical: the Conference League brings in money and a European autumn, while the league season can wait.

For Partizan the move has a practical side as well. Instead of three matches in a few days, the squad gets a clean block of preparation and travels without league minutes weighing on their legs. If Ze does not recover in that window, the time gained will have been spent without the one thing it was meant to buy.

What Partizan Is Defending in Kostanay

The second leg of the third qualifying round of the Conference League is played Thursday at 17:00 in Kostanay. Partizan defend a 3:0 lead from the first leg at Humska, an advantage that is not easily lost over ninety minutes, but is not untouchable in Europe either. An early goal for the hosts and nerves on the road are a script that repeats in qualifying rounds every season.

Ahead of the trip, this much is known:

• Ze did his last training session before departure apart from the team
• the front thigh injury has not been described as serious
• the travel list for Kazakhstan has not yet been finalized

Some of this will change by Wednesday, since a thigh muscle injury, whether at the front or back, heals on a schedule that no doctor can speed up.

My assessment is that Ilic will not take the risk. A player who has already broken down once after returning to full training is not flown 3,500 kilometers to play twenty minutes and get hurt again. Partizan needs Ze in the SuperLiga and in a possible fourth qualifying round, not in Kostanay, where they lead by three goals. The next fixture is Thursday at 17:00, and the answer to what the Brazilian has actually brought to this team will only come after that.