Baxter postpones Bafana squad announcement after Chan withdrawals cause havoc

Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has postponed his announcement of his squad for a 2018 World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde‚ bringing into question his intention of juggling duties between competitions this week.

Baxter has apparently been swamped with a juggling act of trying to find replacements for a squad hit by 10 more withdrawals for Saturday’s away second leg of an African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifier against Zambia‚ and putting the finishing touches to his Cape Verde squad.

As a consequence the announcement of the Russia 2018 qualifier squad has been postponed from Wednesday to Monday.

Baxter had left the Chan squad – where Bafana conceded a 2-2 home draw in the first leg against Zambia in East London on Saturday – in the hands of assistant Thabo Senong so he could finalise his Cape Verde squad.

The coach intends to rejoin the Chan squad‚ and travel with the team to Ndola on Thursday to take his place on the bench in the second leg‚ Senong said on Tuesday.

But‚ quite apart from the logistics of their now being a major World Cup squad announcement at Safa House in Nasrec on Monday‚ Baxter’s Safa bosses might want to step in and advise the coach to focus on the bigger game‚ with a trip to Zambia possibly too great a distraction from that at present.

Senong was asked on Tuesday for clarity on whether Baxter intends to travel to Zambia‚ and if the head coach has remained involved in trying to bolster the withdrawal-hit Chan squad while still trying to finalise his Cape Verde squad.

“Stuart is still the head coach of the (Chan) team. Obviously he’s been doing some work in the office‚ because as we all know there will be a press conference about the Bafana squad announcement for the World Cup qualifiers‚” Senong said.

“So I’m still the assistant-coach. Coach Baxter will be on the bench on Saturday in Zambia.

“And‚ yes‚ myself and Stuart have been communicating with regard to replacements (for the Chan squad). He has just had a meeting with (Chiefs coach) Steve Komphela.

“He’s supposed to have a meeting with the Pirates coach (Milutin Sredojevic)‚ he’s making calls also to the Sundowns coach (Pitso Mosimane)‚ just to check on the availability of a few players and make a few reinforcements.

“So coach Baxter is still the head coach (for the Chan). I’m just a very active assistant-coach who’s running the next three training sessions.

“He will take the training session on Thursday morning‚ and then travel with us to Zambia.”

Bafana’s Chan squad have been hit by 10 further withdrawals – after 10 last week also – from the first leg. Senong had to cancel his training session on Tuesday morning as he had only 15 players available.

This was bolstered to 19 as training resumed in the afternoon‚ with Chiefs providing defenders Kgotso Moleko‚ Sibusiso Khumalo and Siya Ngezana‚ and Siphelele Ndlovu of ABC Motsepe League side TS Galaxy also honouring a call-up.

- TimesLIVE