7 June 2019 – Bafana Bafana completed Day Five of the AFCON training schedule at Steyn City School in Fourways without any injury scare, something coach Stuart Baxter said was quite pleasing.
The Men’s Senior National team will play a practice match on Saturday before coach Baxter makes what he said would be a difficult decision in dropping three players among the 26 in camp.
Already, defender Rivaldo Coetzee has made himself unavailable after he asked to be excused from camp. The tenacious defender said his mother has not been feeling well and he needed to be by her bedside while recuperating in Northern Cape.
The other player who will definitely not travel to the AFCON tournament but was included in the original 28-man provisional squad, is Keagan Dolly who aggravated his groin strain while with the u23 who are participating in the COSAFA Cup tournament in Durban.
That left Baxter with a 26-man team and from that, will have to drop three more to meet the 23-man squad required by CAF ahead of the tournament kick off.
After the practice match on Saturday, Baxter and his technical team will drop the three players before the team flies off to Dubai on Monday, 10 June 2019.
There, Bafana Bafana have secured a friendly international match against Ghana and have requested another one, against a yet to be confirmed opponents, to be played in Egypt just before the tournament gets underway.
South Africa start their campaign with a match against Ivory Coast on 24 June and on 28 June, take on neighbours Namibia before finishing their group matches with a game against Morocco on 1 July.
Image Credit: Lefty Shivambu – Gallo Images