Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos says he will not drop Orlando Pirates star Relebohile Mofokeng despite an indifferent start to the current campaign.
The 20-year-old has played 10 matches for the Buccaneers across all competitions this season with certain fractions of fans and pundits saying he isn’t the fire cracker he was in the previous term.
Though he was called up for the September Bafana camp Mofokeng didn’t feature in the matches against Lesotho and Nigeria, but Broos has named him again in his final squad to play the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Rwanda.
The Belgian tactician said it is expected that the player’s form is affected by all the interest that didn’t amount to much but that doesn’t take away from his quality, which is why he is backing the winger.
“What happened with Rele is a little bit you can expect that,” said Broos on SABC1.
“You can expect that, there was interest from everywhere in the world. Every team wanted Rele and then I have a feeling, okay, there are, how do you say that in English, people are going out trying to sell him.
“I think this is what happened with Rele and it’s not good for the player. At the certain moment you are only thinking about that, you can’t focus anymore on football.
“And that is what happened with Rele, but his qualities are still there, and I will not drop him like that.
“So he is with us and we will try to give him confidence again, and I try to talk a little bit with him also, he has to focus on football and all the rest forget it. It will come.”
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