Bafana Bafana coach faces tough selection decisions

27 July 2016 - 17:56 By Nick Said

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba faces some tough decisions in the coming months with a number of his key players sidelined at their respective clubs and battling to find new employment. South Africa begin their campaign for a place at the 2018 World Cup in Russia in October and Mashaba will be concerned about the form and fitness of some first team regulars‚ who have had either no pre-season or been training on their own.Tokelo Rantie‚ Anele Ngcongca‚ Thulani Serero‚ May Mahlangu and Dino Ndlovu all have a question marks over their immediate futures‚ while Andile Jali has missed his pre-season at Belgian side Oostende through injury.Rantie‚ Bafana’s most effective striker under Mashaba‚ has made it known he wants to leave English Premier League Bournemouth in search of regular game-time elsewhere and had been offered around Europe.The latest club to show an interest is Swiss side FC Zurich‚ who according to reports are willing to take him on loan and cover the cost of his wages.The player recently expressed a desire to return to Swedish side Malmo but has had no contact with the team‚ while he was also offered to their rivals Djurgarden.Talks with Belgian side SonderjyskE appear to have broken down as well‚ while a return to the Premier Soccer League appears to be a non-starter on financial grounds.The upshot is that South Africa’s premier forward has not started a league game in two seasons and last played back in March when he featured for the national side against Cameroon.Thulani Serero is out in the cold at Ajax Amsterdam‚ who have not even given him a jersey number this season as they look to offload him in the final year of his contract.He will train with the reserve side when he recovered from a knee injury picked up on national team duty against Gambia last month but having had a number of injury problems in the last 12 months‚ needs to prove his fitness to any potential suitors.Ngcongca’s situation at Belgian side Genk remains unchanged.He has not mended fences with coach Peter Maes and has not been involved in pre-season despite having fully recovered from the injury that ruled him out of the final stages of the Ligue 1 season where he was on loan at Troyes.Mahlangu is still searching for a club after leaving Belgian side Sint Truiden at the end of last season and Times Media Digital can reveal Kaizer Chiefs did enquire about his services some weeks back‚ but have not followed up that interest.Ndlovu is another player training on his own in Cyprus having not been included in pre-season by his club Anorthosis Famagusta‚ who are eager to cash in on the Bafana striker.The 26-year-old scored 18 goals in 26 starts for Anorthosis last season which attracted interest from a number of teams around Europe.The latest is Turkish side Antalyaspor‚ though they have not turned their interest into anything concrete.The club did not take him on their pre-season trip to Poland leaving him to work in the gym by himself.Jali has an ankle injury that has kept him out of the entire pre-season so far‚ while Cardiff City’s Kagisho Dikgacoi‚ no longer in the plans of Bafana Bafana‚ has been training with the club’s reserves after being left out of their tour of Germany.Daylon Claasen‚ who was in sparkling form for German Bundesliga II side 1860 Munich towards the end of last season‚ has also missed the entire pre-season having had a knee injury.New Vitoria Guimaraes midfielder Bongani Zungu is also a week away from full training as he recovers from long-term injury having joined the Portuguese side from Mamelodi Sundowns...

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