Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane has provided an update on Aubrey Modiba’s injury after the defender was forced off during South Africa’s 2-1 win over Guinea in their opening AFCON qualifier at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.
Modiba, a regular in Bafana’s team, was unable to complete the match and was replaced by Samukele Kabini.
Mosimane revealed that the game placed significant demands on the full-backs, with the workload proving too much for Modiba, who was struggling with a hamstring issue.
“Aubrey is overloaded, my full-backs were on duty tonight. So, Aubrey is overloaded, but we have Kabini,” said Mosimane.
“Sebelebele is younger, and he can take the load, this guy can run all the time. So, Aubrey’s got a tight hamstring, which is not nice for us, but at least we still have Basadien, and we still have Kabini.”
With Modiba’s availability for the upcoming matches still uncertain, Mosimane explained that having a 30-man squad gives Bafana the depth needed to cope with potential injuries.
“Hence, we called 30 players, so you can see now, people are falling off, and we just played one match. I know it’s not easy for the football association to be giving me 30 players,” he continued.
“But if we want to be at that level of the results, because this is the reality, this is the reality, so I don’t call 30 because I choose to call 30. Jurgen Klopp called 42, 42 players, he’s got four friendly games, I couldn’t do four, because I don’t want the coaches at Glasgow to be angry with me, and upset with me, that I’m playing four games, and all that.
“But Jurgen Klopp can do that, I’m not Jurgen Klopp, it’s not easy, but yeah, and also I want to to forge relationships with the teams, and give them the players before the FIFA break ends so that when I ask for a favour, also they should return the favour.
“So, I would like to play four, but yeah, and those are the last friendly games until AFCON finals, after that, there’s no any other space, so we need to stay with this team and wait for others to come.”