After missing out on the AFCON due to mental health treatment, Lyle Foster will now likely miss Bafana Bafana’s friendlies next month due to a fresh injury.
Now Burnley coach Vincent Kompany has confirmed that Foster has undergone surgery and will be out for a period.
“Lyle Foster won’t be available yet,” Kompany told the British media.
“He’s had surgery on a chronic issue that needed resolving. It’s not the end of his season, but he will miss out for a bit,” saying he would give a further update in the coming weeks.
Foster is likely to miss South Africa’s friendlies against Algeria and Andorra.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was already frustrated seeing that Foster played seven times after coming back at the end of 2023, and said he could’ve been useful in Ivory Coast.
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But Kompany once again calmly explained Foster’s mental health situation, perhaps due to misunderstandings about the condition and treatment.
“I can explain it again,” Kompany continued.
“It’s not frustrating, it’s expected. I’ll explain it again very calmly, physical fitness and mental fitness are two very different things.”
“You can be physically fit but you can also mentally be in a position where it’s not a possibility for you to go away to a tournament for a month, if you’re not in the right headspace or you don’t have the capacity to deal with that.
“We’ve been very open about it. You come out of the rehab clinic, you’re dealing with a problem that is beyond football. It’s life.
“We were just part of his rehabilitation plan. It’s his environment, he comes in through the doors, he’s with people of his age, friends as well, not just colleagues. He doesn’t have friends outside the club, he’s come from abroad. His social support system is the club.
“The timing of him returning to play or not, it’s absolutely not our decision. It’s seeing what happens and seeing if he feels ready to do it.
“The first thing we did was remove him completely out of first-team football. We got care for him.
“We took a hit for it. It doesn’t matter if we took a hit in a period where we could have used him. If he had said he needed another month, another two months, another three months, we would have gone along with that.
“But we are part of his rehabilitation, we’re his support system. I can explain it again and again and again and I will do so by the way, because I expect this question to come again.
“I believe we sent documentation but we have documentation available for anybody that has the authority to look into it. We can share that, it’s not a problem. Everything is documented.
“We went to great lengths to try and explain the situation to all governing bodies. FIFA, Premier League, FIFPro, PFA, South African FA, the manager, we tried to explain.
“But I expect I will have to explain again, so I will explain again. In a couple of months I will do it again and again until people understand. If your starting position is the care of the player, then you find the right answers. That’s the only thing we did.”
