29 July 2022 – Keenan Phillips says he feels honoured to have earned his first Bafana Bafana call-up, adding that he’s been working tirelessly in training to impress the technical staff ahead of Saturday’s CHAN qualifier against Comoros.

Bafana Bafana will welcome the Islanders in the CHAN first round, second leg tie at Dobsonville Stadium (Kick-off 15h00), following a 1-0 cushion they produced in their first leg meeting the previous week.

Phillips, who missed out on last year’s COSAFA Cup tournament after testing positive of COVID-19, said this is one moment he’s been waiting for in his young playing career.

The 22-year old is no stranger to South Africa’s national team setups, having previously played for the national Under-20s (Amajita) and scoring the country’s opening goal in the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup Poland edition against Argentina.

“I am so happy to be here,” Phillips said. “My parents were so excited when I told them about the call-up and it is now up to me to continue putting in the work and focusing on the job at hand. Everybody in the team is in high spirits leading up to this match and we just want to perform well and progress to the next round.

“It’s going to be a tough game because Comoros are going to come with the intention of causing an upset in this game,” Phillips added. “The boys are very much aware of this and we are not taking this game lightly.”