Foster didn’t betray us!

Compliments of the New Year to all of you, wonderful Soccer Laduma readers. We are happy to be back and hope everyone enjoyed some time off during the Christmas break. With our batteries recharged, it is time to hit the ground running! Welcome back and may 2024 be a year of fulfilment for all of us, a year where we will be reaching our goals and making a significant and meaningful difference in our communities and country. Let this be the year we all make sure that we become better human beings and make South Africa a better country and place to be. May this be the year we protect our women and children, as male football supporters, and let love and peace prevail.

There has been a lot of reaction to Burnley FC striker, Lyle Foster’s return to action for his English Premier League side, which happened on the back of The Clarets making it clear that their player was not ready for action and that he was definitely not available for Bafana Bafana, as coach Hugo Broos’ charges prepare themselves for the much-anticipated 2023 Afcon in Ivory Coast. For the uninitiated, Foster had been out of action for months, having last played in October, due to mental health issues that he has been dealing with. It was on that basis that the club decided to put him aside and make sure that he got all the necessary treatment and support, behind the scenes. They did all they could to protect him from public scrutiny, without him having to suffer from the daily pressure that comes with playing at the elite level, in one of the best leagues in the world. For all intents and purposes, through his coach – Vincent Kompany – Foster asked to be excused from the national team as it came as a surprise to them that coach Broos’ wisdom saw fit to call the 23-year-old up for Afcon, having not played for his team for months. It is now history that the former Bucs front man will be taking no part in Bafana’s Afcon campaign. However, this decision has not gone unchallenged, with some football supporters believing Foster has turned his back on his country when we needed him the most.

With him having just returned to action at club level, some South Africans don’t seem to take footballers’ mental health seriously! That’s both surprising and unfortunate, to say the least! Either we don’t care about his wellbeing enough or we are not clued up on what mental health issues are all about. Some people just don’t seem to care about the seriousness of Foster’s case. Even for coach Broos to call Foster up for this tournament was mind-boggling! This is a high-level intensity competition, at national team level, and if Foster is not even ready to play 90 minutes at club level, what makes you think he will be ready to take to the field when Bafana open their campaign against Mali on Tuesday or for any other game for that matter? For anyone who has been in the game for as long as coach Broos has, it makes no sense to call up a player now who hasn’t played competitive football since October. It doesn’t matter how much you believe and trust in him. The bottom line is that football is about momentum as much as it is about match fitness. Confidence and competition are equally important in the Beautiful Game. If you can’t compete at club level for more than two months, what are the chances of you miraculously becoming a hit when you finally taste competitive football? Also, you are talking about a player who is dealing with mental health issues, moving him from his familiar surroundings he calls home – his club – where he is protected and supported, to expose him to pressure and scrutiny where the whole continent will be keeping their eyes on him. This is someone playing in the EPL and therefore a lot of weight will be on his shoulders.

Foster is not out of the woods just yet, as far as his condition is concerned. Just because he is now back in the team, doesn’t mean he is ready to play at any level. Not all is well, this is a process. As his coach has rightfully mentioned, the club continues to monitor his situation regularly. It doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out because there is no way Foster would have recovered from his mental health issues in two months. His recovery is akin to a player returning from physical injury. That player will have to sit in the stands, then on the bench, get a few minutes under his belt, a couple of times, before he can be considered for a starting position in the team. There is something called periodization and it is there for a reason! You can’t take someone from the stands, put them in the starting line-up and expect them to give you 90 minutes of excellent performance without causing harm to themselves. Match fitness, confidence and momentum don’t grow on trees, you earn it on the field of play and it is a gradual process. Why can’t we do the same with Lyle Foster? At club level, it is easier for them to monitor his situation and play him accordingly because they are with him every day. They started this process with him and he feels safer and is making great strides, so why mess that up? Coach Broos, unlike his counterpart – Kompany – doesn’t have that luxury because he’s only had his players for less than a week in camp, preparing for the tournament. Where is he going to find time to assess Foster and make sure that he is on the same wavelength as his teammates? This is a completely different level of pressure to what players go through at club level. Bafana have not covered themselves in glory, especially at Afcon in years – in fact, 1996 was 28 years ago! So, can you imagine the pressure felt by our team every time they got to this tournament, being constantly reminded about the Class of ’96 and the need to emulate them?

To expect Foster to play for Bafana now would be undoing everything good the club has done in his support and the ground they’ve covered so far in dealing with his mental health issues. It would be undermining the progress made, which is exactly why coach Broos’ decision to call the player up left some of us gobsmacked! For people to accuse this young man of turning his back on us, shame on you! You’re just being disingenuous because the player is in no state to play for the national team, just yet. The club can afford to play him, but that doesn’t automatically render him ready to play at national team level. Foster didn’t betray us! We have to protect our players because, at the end of the day, Foster has to recover fully before he can be expected to represent the country. This is a young man who has never given us any reason to doubt his patriotism, so it is disappointing to see him being accused of betrayal. He has to tick all the boxes before he can recover fully and him getting gametime at club level is just part of the journey, not the destination. As much as one would have loved to see Foster in action in Cote d’Ivoire, his health is more important than national duty. That’s just the bottom line!

Cheers, VeeJay