Fatigue a concern for Bafana in huge World Cup clashes against Nigeria, Zim

National coach Hugo Broos will have a major concern on his mind about the potential fatigue of the core of his team that comes from Mamelodi Sundowns when Bafana Bafana play two huge 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe next month.

With Group C favourites and Bafana’s perennial stumbling block Nigeria having started poorly with draws against Lesotho and Zimbabwe, South Africa are in with a real chance of qualifying for a first World Cup other than as hosts since 2002.

Bafana (three points) could have been in a better position than second place to Rwanda (four). Bafana started with a 2-1 home win against Benin, but lost 2-0 away against Rwanda. Buoyed by their best finish at an Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in 24 years with bronze in Ivory Coast in February, South Africa can put themselves in the group driving seat with strong results against Nigeria in Uyo on June 7 and Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein on June 11. The winners of the nine groups qualify for the first 48-team World Cup in Mexico, Canada and the US. 

Broos’ team at the Nations Cup was built around Sundowns — seven or even eight in his starting XI. Apart from Downs possessing most of the best players in the DStv Premiership, in which they have wrapped up a seventh successive title in 2023-24, their players have been toughened by competing every year in the knockout stages of the Caf Champions League, including the last two semifinals.

In June, the Belgian will have some concerns about the number of games Sundowns have played — 53 at present and 58 by the end of the campaign — as they have competed across six competitions in 2023-24, including two continental tournaments, winning the inaugural African Football League.

Sundowns also complete that manic schedule clashing against Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup final at Mbombela Stadium on June 1, five days before Bafana meet Nigeria away.

Sundowns’ players are hardened, one saw that at the Nations Cup. But that many matches in a campaign — add Bafana matches, and not just the seven played at high intensity at Afcon, but also throughout the season — and the travel involved, and Broos will hope he has a national team that is not on the verge of collapse next month.

Joshua Smith, now high-performance manager at AmaZulu, where he oversees the under-13s to the Premiership team in all things strength and conditioning and sports science, served the Bafana of coach Stuart Baxter that reached the quarterfinals at the 2019 Nations Cup. He sees pros and cons to the Sundowns players' schedule for Broos. 

“I don’t think there will be a problem with motivation,” he said, acknowledging playing for a place in the World Cup will serve that purpose.

“Having such a strong core of that group being Sundowns players who have played consecutively in the Champions League [each year], so they understand the demands of back-to-back congested football, you’ve got a very strong group of players there.

“They’ve definitely built that chronic fitness where they’ve got this loading profile over the course of many seasons, so this is not going to be a shock to their systems.

“The biggest thing will be management. They [Bafana’s fitness and conditioning staff] will have to make sure the type of physical stuff these players do when they get into camp focuses on keeping them fresh, reducing residual fatigue, making sure you’re getting the most out of them versus trying to do anything to improve fitness.

“At this stage of the season you’re not going to improve anybody’s fitness; if anything it’s combating fatigue. There has to be applied, individualised load and recovery management.”

Players from different clubs with varied seasonal loads will need individual management, Smith said.

“When I was with the national team that’s something we would monitor — how many matches people had played, what was the composition of the squad coming in, who needed minutes or loading versus those who needed a step-on technical/tactical session.

“I think you’ll see the same approach [in the coming camp]. The importance is, like any off-season programme you hand out to players, nothing is going to be the same. You’ll get players who have played maybe 10 games for the season who need more [physical training] versus guys who have played a lot who need less, like the Sundowns guys. It’s about maintaining Broos’ tactical model — how can they do that and ensure player freshness?”

For that sort of profiling it would be helpful if Bafana and Sundowns’ technical staffs were on good communicative terms, Smith said. It is concerning that, between the head coaches at least, there has been more of a cold war and sometimes a public war of words between Broos and Brazilians counterpart Rulani Mokwena.

Smith was asked if, for Broos, perhaps the pros outweigh the cons of such a gruelling season for Sundowns in the toughness it has bred and instilled in their players versus the fatigue element.

“I certainly think it’s a double-edged sword. You’ve got the success of the season, success of Afcon, success of Sundowns, which as the South African football fraternity is fantastic to see; but at the same time in his head he must be concerned — he’s got key players not getting the recovery they need.

“If I was in that position or the performance manager for the national team, I’d try to garner as close a relationship with Sundowns as possible, with their high-performance staff. Get an understanding about what they are doing and how can we at the national team leverage on that to get the most out of our core players.

“I do think we need to do more in fostering that relationship between club and country at an organisational level. I don’t feel it’s always been done correctly.”

The cup final on the weekend before the World Cup qualifiers, which has the potential to be competitive and brutal, also can have positives and negatives.

“Broos will definitely be able to see where his core group of players are from a form perspective, but yes, the last thing you want is that game going to 120 minutes [for extra time] because that would be a nightmare from a loading perspective [for the Bafana staff].

“Again, look, he’s got a lot of challenges he’s got to work around. And again, that really just comes down to what type of plans they have in place. As much as Sundowns are monitoring the player load and implementing recovery, what are the national team doing to monitor players externally? Do they get an idea of match minutes played, do they potentially have access to and are they talking to Sundowns to get GPS data?

“There will need to be a really rigorous recovery strategy in place to get the most out of these players.”