Mashaba likely to tread carefully

BAFANA Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba is expected to avoid calling up the big names ahead of the national team’s return leg against Mauritius for their African Nations Championships (Chan) qualifier next week.

This move by the coach, who is likely to announce his squad today, is seen as a bid to sidestep the club-versus-country saga following the withdrawal of key PSL players by their clubs days before the first leg in Johannesburg.

Dominic Chimhavi, the SA Football Association (Safa) spokesman, said yesterday that Mashaba and his technical team were unlikely to scramble for players before their trip to Mauritius for the July 5 qualifier.

“I don’t think we will see a similar case to last week,” he said.

“We wanted to release the names of the players called up to- day [yesterday] but we are waiting to finalise a few things.

“But the Bafana technical team is confident that they will have enough players to travel with. Those players are expected to assemble on Sunday.”

Despite the late spate of withdrawals – forcing Mashaba to cancel two training sessions because he did not have enough players – Bafana were able to thump Mauritius 3-0 at the Dobsonville Stadium last weekend.

The coach can only rely on lo- cally based players according to tournament rules.

However, with PSL teams having returned for pre-season training, clubs have been reluctant to release players for Bafana duty and are not obliged to do so because the Chan tournament is not in the Fifa calendar.

Chimhavi would not say from which pool Mashaba was likely to pick his team, but the Orlando Pirates duo of Tshepo Gumede and Thamsanqa Gabuza could feature.

The two were not pulled out of the national team by the Buccaneers last week as they were not expected to play a role in the club’s Caf Confederations Cup clash against AC Leopards in Dolisie, the Republic of Congo, this weekend. Gabuza is suspended for that away clash.

Mashaba is also expected to use National First Division players, especially as Bafana take a 3-0 advantage to Mauritius.

‘ The Bafana technical team is confident that they will have enough players to travel with