Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has revealed that not all players have arrived in Belgium yet due to some Visa issues, and also explained why he finally picked Lyle Lakay.
The Belgian tactician will have a personal home game on Friday, when Bafana will meet Guinea in Kortrijk.
However, he has confirmed that not all players have arrived in camp yet, because every player had to make a personal visa appointment before flying out to Europe.
“Normally tomorrow morning everybody has to be here, so it’s a problem with Visa,” he said on Wednesday.
“It’s a little bit unlucky that every player has to present themselves in the embassy. We’re also unlucky because on Monday, it was holiday in South Africa. So nobody didn’t work. And therefore the last four players will be here tomorrow morning.
“But it’s not really my problem. Because as I said already, I like to give a chance to every player to play a game. So those who will play on Friday are here I think except a few.
“So that cannot be a problem for Friday and for Tuesday next week, we have time enough. But it’s a little bit uncomfortable that now for today not everybody is here.”
SAFA later confirmed that Athenkosi Mcaba, Terrence Mashego, Fagrie Lakay, Bongokuhle Hlongwane and Victor Letsoalo are the players yet to arrive in camp.
Broos also stated that he has picked the likes of Lyle Lakay because he and the technical team pointed out a lack of experience and a lack of power in the previous squad.
“I think the building is done and I explained myself when I came here in September I took only young players and everybody was surprised why he didn’t take the older players,” he added.
“But I wanted to see first what we have in young players because this is the future. And after the qualifiers for the World Cup, we saw that there were some lacks in the in the team, lacks of power lacks of experience.
“And then we start to scout the older players and the players with power, like for example [Goodman] Mosele. I’m very happy that [Mothobi] Mvala is again here. But also that some older guys and then when you say when you see [Thabang] Monare is the oldest of our team today but the good performances with with Pirates in the Confederations Cup.
“I don’t have to speak about the players of Sundowns, Lyle Lakay is also 30 but good performances also in the CAF Champions League also.
“It’s not [about] the age and I said that already in September, the door was never closed for all the players. But I wanted to see first what we have from younger players. So I know that now. And now we try to fill up the lacks we have in the qualifiers for World Cup.
“And we will see therefore, again, those two games are very interesting, not only to see if the guys could bring us something more, but we play against very tough opponents. So it is a very good test and the result is not important. I just want to see that those guys will really improve the quality of the team and if we can succeed in that I think we will be much stronger in June.”
