Photo Credit - Orlando Pirates Football Club.
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has openly criticised Betway Premiership outfit Orlando Pirates for his late decision to drop midfielder Patrick Maswanganyi, who was axed despite linking up with the team in training with an injury on Monday.
Maswanganyi was among the players summoned by the Belgian coach to start residential camp in Polokwane ahead of South Africa's two crucial 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho on Friday and Benin next Tuesday.
However, despite joining camp, Broos revealed on Monday that Polokwane City midfielder Ndamulelo Maphangule had been called up to replace the injured Maswanganyi. According to Broos, the player picked up the injury in training before Pirates took on rivals Mamelodi Sundowns in the reverse fixture of the PSL which they won 2-1 at FNB Stadium on Sunday.
A statement from PSL further confirmed: “Orlando Pirates midfielder Patrick Maswanganyi has been forced to pull out of the Bafana Bafana squad with an injury. Maswanganyi has been replaced in the Bafana squad by Polokwane City midfielder Ndamulelo Maphangule.”
“If my information is right, he was injured on Saturday already at training or something, I don’t know,” said Broos as quoted by FARPost. “So everybody knew that Patrick was with the national team. I thought at that moment they would call and say look, ‘Maswanganyi is injured and can’t play tomorrow [Sunday]. He can’t be in the camp’.
“That gives us more time to look for another player. So this morning, with all the other problems, we had to call him [Rodney Maphangule], and we are lucky that he is staying here in Polokwane. Imagine if he was coming from Chippa or whatever. That we had to wait, that means he would only arrive tomorrow here [in Polokwane].
“So yeah, a little bit more occupied with the fact that your player can play, injured or not injured, just give the information. You don’t have to call me. Call the [SAFA] team doctor [Thulani Ngwenya] and say, ‘Look, there is a problem with Patrick. He is not ready for the camp, okay?’
“But then we have to wait and wait. Last night at 20:00, I received a call from the team saying Patrick was injured. We don’t know, so just give information. What’s wrong with giving information to the team doctor? If they don’t want to give it to me, call the team doctor. It’s so easy, and it helps us a lot when we know it at the right moment.”
Bafana will host neighbours Lesotho at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on, Friday before they fly to Côte d’Ivoire via a chartered flight to face Benin in the second qualifier a few days later.
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