Bafana miss five players as they warm up in France for game against Guinea

Bafana Bafana kicked off their training in France ahead of their two friendly matches in Europe missing five players but coach Hugo Broos is confident he will have a full squad before the first game on Friday.

Bafana will play Guinea on Friday night in Kortrijk, Belgium, (kickoff 6pm in Belgium, 7pm in SA) before returning to meet the star-studded world champions France on Tuesday night.

Broos will use the matches  to prepare for the Afcon qualifiers starting in June.

SA began their training in Europe on Tuesday without Bandile Shandu and Goodman Mosele, who arrived after the session having travelled from Algeria where they played in Orlando Pirates' 2-0 Caf Confederation Cup win against JS Saoura on Sunday night. 

Speaking ahead of Wednesday's training, Broos said five more players — defenders Athenkosi Mcaba (Stellenbosch FC) and Terrence Mashego (Cape Town City), and striker Fagrie Lakay (Pyramids FC, Egypt) and Bongokuhle Hlongwane (Minnesota FC) and Victor Letsoalo (Royal AM) are still to join the camp with visa issues. They were expected on Thursday and to be available for the game against Guinea.

Though Broos said he was uncomfortable about not having the full complement, he was consoled by the fact that almost all the players that are likely to play against Guinea trained with the team on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow [Thursday] morning everybody has to be here,” Bross said on Wednesday from Lille. “It’s a problem of visas and it’s a  bit unfortunate that every player has to present themselves at the embassy. We were also unlucky that on Monday it was a holiday in SA and people were not working.

“Therefore the remaining four players will be here tomorrow morning. But it’s not really a problem because, as I said already, I like to give every player a chance to play — so those who will play on Friday are here except for a few,” the coach said.

“So that can’t be a problem for the Friday and Saturday training sessions for next week [against France]. But it’s a bit uncomfortable that not everyone is here.”

While Broos has said he would prefer quality performances over winning results in the two games, the happiness and motivation the coach has seen from the Bafana players has given him great confidence.

“Our [15 hours] trip was a night flight but I was very happy with the training I saw yesterday [Tuesday] afternoon. I have to be optimistic and the guys are happy to be here and they are ready to play those two games,” the coach said.

“It’s two different games of different levels but I’m confident. I think France is certainly the motivation for the players.

“You don’t have a chance to play the world champions every day and I think there will be great interest in that game. Yesterday, I heard from people who are from here [France] that it will be a full stadium.

“It will be a fantastic atmosphere, there’s a lot of interest from the French side and also from the other sides because the world champions are playing.”

France are ranked third in the world while Guinea are on position 81, with SA 68th.