Banyana Banyana and Tigres UANL striker Thembi Kgatlana has opened up on her comeback to the squad and their WAFCON preparations in Japan after missing the last international friendlies against Algeria in April.
The forward’s absence was reported to be because of load management. Kgatlana is currently in camp with the team preparing for the two friendlies against Japan in Osaka, the first one on Saturday and the last next Tuesday.
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The matches are part of Banyana’s preparations for the upcoming Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) tournament to be hosted in Morocco in July this year.
Kgatlana, 30, told SASOL in Sports how hard she’s been working and recovering from injuries this season and appreciates the opportunity to measure her progress.
“It’s always an honour to come back and represent the national team,” said the 2018 African Woman Footballer of the Year.
“I’ve had a fairly chance of being injured this season, but I’ve been working a lot on coming back. I know football nowadays is a lot. We see the two games we have in Japan in two days, which is also a model that we’re going to use in WAFCON.
“So, I think I’m also privileged to be here joining the team to see how I’m going to adapt and how also the players are going to adapt in WAFCON.”
Kgatlana is excited to face the fifth-ranked women’s side in the world saying they will provide the right test in different areas for the 2022 African champions ahead of the tournament that also serves as a 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup qualifier.
“I’m pretty excited and the team is also excited to be playing Japan,” added Kgatlana.
“We always want to play against the best teams in the world to measure selves to see where the progress is and how far we can get to where we want to be. I mean there are things that we are working towards in preparation for WAFCON.
“And I think it was important for us to play a highly ranked team like Japan, so that we can prepare mentally, emotionally, physically as well, and also tactically, because they come in as a highly ranked team.
“So, it also means that we also have to see what we can get out of this game so that we can be able to arrive in WAFCON in better conditions.”
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