As if worrying about finding a way to beat Burkina Faso in Saturday’s must-win 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier was not enough‚ Bafana Bafana coach Stuart Baxter also has to deal with a myriad of injury concerns that are giving the Briton plenty to think about ahead of the crunch encounter.
A knee injury will keep captain Thulani Hlatshwayo out of the game and a last-minute SOS has been sent to Cape Town City’s Robyn Johannes.
Mamelodi Sundowns centre-back Motjeka Madisha is another late addition to the squad and he will replace Kaizer Chiefs defender Eric Mathoho‚ who have been handed a two-match suspension and R70,000 fine by Fifa.
‘‘Tower (Mathoho) as we know received an extra game ban and so he is unavailable‚” Baxter said.
‘‘The captain Tyson (Hlatshwayo) has also been withdrawn and Wits have confirmed that he won’t be available.
‘‘The replacements for them will be Madisha and Robyn Johannes.
"There’s many opinions about who we can call-up and what not.
‘‘But these call-ups are also based on the fact that our friendly game has been cancelled.
‘‘So there will be an internal 11 v 11 after we have done our recuperations after the Burkina Faso game.”
Baxter said striker Bradley Grobler and Andile Jali are also injury concerns ahead of the qualifier.
‘‘Bradley Grobler has a groin issue that we think is manageable‚ and therefore he will do normal training.
‘‘Andile Jali is a bit more of an issue because he has dislocated his shoulder.
"We do not know how severely but we will do an MRI scan on it.
‘‘He continued and played the full game (for his Belgian club KV Oostende at the weekend) but this is the third time it’s happened.
‘‘(KV Oostende) have asked us if we can do an MRI to estimate the severity of the damage this time.”
— TimesLIVE
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