Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has revealed that striker Iqraam Rayners’ exclusion from his final 25-man Africa Cup Of Nations squad was down to more attacking options.
Though the Mamelodi Sundowns frontman missed on the final squad, he is however one of three players on the stand-by list alongside Kaizer Chiefs’ Mduduzi Shabalala and Thabo Moloisane from Stellenbosch FC. Rayners was initially part of the final 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Zimbabwe and Rwanda in October but was withdrawn due to medical reasons.
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Broos explained that the exclusion wasn’t because of the player’s health issues but the fact that he had 54 players in his provisional squad, proves that he has options in lot of departments.
“No, I think when you saw the list of 54 that means that you have more options,” said Broos on SABC TV.
“At the other side this is something different than qualifiers. Qualifiers is a little bit a knockout system, you lose a game and maybe you can lose also your qualification. So, you can’t make so much experiment, so you have to look first we need the result.
“So, if I can come back again to Tylon [Smith] and to Shandre [Campbell] we have 23 players on which I will count for 100%, [Smith and Campbell] they are there to have the experience.
“So, I can do that now because, okay, we have a number of players who will play the games, and they have just to learn. And I think this is a great opportunity for them to be there. For other positions I couldn’t do it and that’s the reason why they are here with us.”
Bafana have been pitted in Group B with Angola, Zimbabwe and Egypt.
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