Amajita head coach Raymond Mdaka has confirmed Shandre Campbell and Mbekezeli Mbokazi will not form part of their squad for the upcoming U20 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 19-year-old duo formed part of the core of the team that won the U20 Cosafa Cup to qualify for the continental showpiece and looked set to be central in their pursuit of the qualification of the U20 FIFA World Cup, when they compete for AFCON in Egypt this month.
With the team set for Cairo tomorrow, they played a friendly fixture against Sekhukhune United’s reserves, and Mdaka confirmed the omissions of their two key players while Siyabonga Mabena has yet to regain fitness after an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
“It’s too general, we have a big pool since we started selecting players, we had about 40, 30 players, if we say there’s players who won’t be there, it’s in relation to players we had during the Cosafa Cup,” he said.
“Most of them we had them in Lesotho, when we played Botswana and so on – but with the group we started with, we don’t have Shandre, his issue was said three weeks back, the team in discussion with management said he’s now with the first team, so it would be difficult to release the boy.
“Mabena has been injured, he was one of the key players, Mbokazi, one of the key players who started every program with him, we thought we’d have him but unfortunately we won’t have him.
“Tiwani, the captain, we discussed with Sundowns and made arrangements, Tiwani will be left in Egypt, we have Neo Rapoo also, we’re in constant discussions with the teams, just to see how best we can help each other. SuperSport are playing a crucial match, you see their position, so we allowed him to play and then join us in Egypt.
“We will be missing Shandre, Mbokazi and Ofentse [Kgosana] also might not be with us as key players, we had in all our previous camps.”
Mdaka also confirmed that Thato Sibiya will form part of the travelling squad, after being listed as a standby player for the final squad.
South Africa is in Group A alongside hosts Egypt, Zambia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania.
