Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has explained why he didn’t call up Orlando Pirates striker Tshegofatso Mabasa to his latest squad.
Mabasa won the Golden Boot in the then DStv Premiership last season and has impressed since returning to the Buccaneers in January.
However, he remained overlooked by Broos in his latest Bafana squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Uganda (6 September) and South Sudan (10 September).
But Broos insisted he has a good variety in his strikers and he feels Mabasa’s strengths are covered by Iqraam Rayners and Lyle Foster.
“You know, when you want someone else in the team, you have to put out someone else,” he told journalists.
“And I ask you, ‘okay, I take Mabasa. Tell me who I have to leave at home’.
“Iqraam did it very well in Algeria and against Algeria and Zimbabwe, Lyle is playing very good in the Premier League.
“So I can’t take someone because yes and to put someone out, I have to see that there is balance in my team, and that if something happening during a game that I can change something.
“Not by putting the same type of player. No, sometimes to put another player. So and Mabasa is not a different type of player than Lyle, and than Iqraam. Iqraam scores a lot also, and Lyle is scoring in the Premier League [sic].
“So for the moment, yeah, it’s maybe difficult to accept for you, or also for the player or maybe for the club, but for the moment, I don’t change.”
