Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos will announce his squad on Thursday that will play two friendly matches against Sierra Leone and Botswana respectively, iDiski Times has learnt.
The dates of these matches will also be announced on Thursday by the national team coach, who has been seen watching domestic matches.
However, the unconfirmed scheduling list that has been seen by the iDiski Times, the friendly match against Sierra Leone is on 24 September at 15:00 at FNB Stadium and that against Botswana (likely to be in Durban) will be on 27 September at 15:00.
This publication has also been informed that they are a few surprise inclusions the national team coach will make in his squad and one of those players set to be included is Stellenbosch FC’s hard working midfielder Sibongiseni Mthwethwa, who has been responsible for carrying his team effortlessly thus far.
Others are Luke Le Roux, who plays Varberg BoIS in Sweden. He has started 19 matches for his club this season.
Vice captain Percy Tau, Grant Kekana and Evidence Makgopa, who were part of Bafana squad that lost to Morocco in July in the first match of the AFCON qualifiers, are set to miss out due to injuries and fitness issues.
Tau and Makgopa are not playing at their respective clubs – Al Ahly and Orlando Pirates due – to injuries. Kekana did return for Sundowns over the weekend in their 2-1 win against Golden Arrows but a return to the national team comes too soon.
This will be the last time Mzansi sees Bafana play in 2022 as the November break is allocated for the FIFA World Cup finals which kicks off on 20 November and goes until 18 December, a competition Bafana did not qualify for.
SAFA was forced to organise these friendly matches as 2024 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers against Liberia this month were postponed by CAF to allow the five African World Cup representatives – Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Cameroon and Tunisia, the sufficient time to play friendly matches ahead of the tournament in Qatar.
Bafana will now play those two competitive games against Liberia, home and away, next March. The AFCON finals in Ivory Coast were also pushed back from next year June/July to January 2024 due to the expected heavy downpour in the West African country.
