The Bafana Bafana camp has been rocked by injury ahead of their departure to the African Cup of Nations with the news that defender Mothobi Mvala might be forced to withdraw from the squad with a groin injury.
Mvala is the worst of the injured players, but he is not the only concern with coach Hugo Broos confirming that along with Mvala, Ronwen Williams and Themba Zwane will both be unavailable for Wednesday’s warm-up game against Lesotho.
Speaking to the media on Tuesday Broos said: “The biggest problem for us is Mothobi, he has a groin injury.
“The doctor is with him, and we will wait for the medical report. We are not sure he will go with us to Ivory Coast.
“We can’t take him with us to Ivory Coast if he can’t train for the next 10 days. In that case then it will be better to take someone else.
“I really hope it is not so bad and with a few days rest I can count on him for our opening match against Mali next Tuesday.”
If Mvala is not able to make the trip it looks likely that Orlando Pirates defender Tapelo Xoki, who was named as of the three players on stand-by, will be called in to take his place.
“It can’t make me happy when a guy like Mothobi is out of the team. When Mothobi plays he gives 100% and when he trains, he gives 150%. He is a guy you can always count on and in a tournament like Afcon these types of guys are very important,” said Broos, who went on to explain the less severe issues with Williams and Zwane.
“The small problem is Ronwen Williams, who didn’t train with us for the past four days, but the medical report is positive. He will not play against Lesotho, but he will be ready for next Tuesday and there is no doubt about that.
“The second small problem is Themba Zwane. He got a kick at training. He wanted to train on Tuesday, but it was better not to. There will be no problem for him next week, but he is out of the Lesotho game.”