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Injury Woes Taking Toll on South Africa

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Enthusiasm of having a good result in the Saturday’s ‘Baptism of Fire’ is fast dying in the cam of Stuart Baxter-tutored Bafana Bafana as they prepare to face the Super Eagles in Saturday’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

When the 21-man Bafana Bafana invitees reported to camp at the weekend, no fewer than seven were nursing one injury or the other.

Sports Village Square’s sources in South Africa said a local newspaper quoted the team doctor, Thulani Ngwenya, lamenting saying, ”for me, we will do our level best in terms of treating all of them and we will make the final call after the scans. The two players that need to go for scans are Rivaldo Coetzee and (Tokelo) Rantie.”

The latter scored the two goals that denied Nigeria qualification for the 2015 competition. The coach, Baxter was also quoted as admitting that it would be disastrous if some of the players ended up going to hospital.

”We are hoping that they are all fit because they have just arrived in camp. It would be a minor disaster if people come to camp and then go straight to hospital.

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”I don’t think that is the idea of a call-up,” the coach said. The team is expected to fly to Nigeria on Wednesday.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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