Mamelodi Sundowns‘ Rivaldo Coetzee has admitted he’s back to a traditional centre-back role but is not putting himself under pressure for a national team return.
Coetzee, 27, was touted as one of the brightest defensive prospects on the continent when he broke out as a 16-year-old at Ajax Cape Town and made his senior national team debut a season later under Shakes Mashaba as a defender.
And while he’s amassed 25 appearances for Bafana, his last cap was in 2021 in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in a 1-1 draw against Ghana, where he was fielded in a six role.
“There’s no pressure at all [to be breaking into the Bafana squad again], I go into every season the same, it’s always good to have a pre-season, and I’ve had one, there were no injuries in pre-season,” Coetzee explained.
“I was fully fit and I feel good, better than I have been in a very long time, so I’m looking forward to the start of the new season.”
Coetzee has notably been used as a more traditional centre-back role in pre-season during their time in Austria.
“I don’t think it much of a positional change, I have played centre-back last season but I was inverting,” Coetzee said.
“But this season I won’t be inverting, at least not as much as last season, so yeah.”
Coetzee featured 29 times for Sundowns in all competitions last season as they won the league and African Football League title.
