Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has explained that Lyle Foster is not part of his AFCON squad due to his medical condition, revealing the player himself wrote a letter to SAFA requesting not to be selected.
Broos had included Foster in his 50-man preliminary squad but the Burnley striker did not make his final selection despite recently returning for his club after his mental breakdown that saw him miss several Premier League games and receiving special treatment.
His coach Vincent Kompany had continuously stated that Foster was not ready “to travel around the world” and “can’t go to AFCON”, a message he also relayed to Broos, who then contacted Burnley’s medical team only to receive the same response.
“We have a lot of contact over the last weeks with Burnley and especially the coach Kompany, and first of all they said ‘forget it, he will not be with you at AFCON’,” Broos explained on SABC3.
“Still, I selected him in there preliminary selection because I thought ‘you never know’. I was surprised that two weeks ago he played one half and immediately phoned Kompany and said ‘hey, what is this I don’t understand this’.
“He explained to me that ‘ok, he played 45 minutes but he wasn’t ready [for AFCON]. There is still the danger that he could have the same problems he had two months ago’. I said ‘ok, I will not discuss with you, I will talk to the doctors’.
“So our doctor had contact with the doctors at Burnley. I got the medical report where it stated it was ‘impossible’ and I repeat ‘it was impossible for Foster to be at AFON’ and this is medical. Don’t ask my why but the risk and the danger is still there that if it goes in a bad direction with Lyle that he goes back to where he started three months ago.
“I was also surprised to see the last weekend that he played again. But again, this is a medical decision, it’s not my decision.”
Broos further revealed that Foster himself had written to SAFA to request not to be part of Bafana’s AFCON squad.
“Don’t forget that three weeks ago, Foster himself wrote a letter to SAFA that he didn’t want to assist the AFCON because of mental problems,” he added.
“That’s the story of Lyle Foster.
“I’m not happy that he’s not there, because he’s a very good striker, but again this is a medical decision and I can’t do anything about it.”
