Bafana Bafana were desperately in need of a left-back yesterday following the withdrawal of defenders Thabo Matlaba and Marc van Heerden, but coach Shakes Mashaba said he was in no rush to call up a replacement.

Mashaba yesterday took charge of the national team's first training session ahead of Sunday's away game to Mauritius in the second leg of their African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifier and would have been relieved to have as many as 15 players reporting for duty.

Matlaba and Van Heerden pulled out due to injuries, while Ntsikelelo Nyauza was withdrawn by his club Orlando Pirates, who cited a "hectic schedule in the CAF competitions".

"We're not frustrated," Mashaba said. "My only concern is that this disturbs our preparations, but we will not do too much today [yesterday] because we are just going to get a feeling of the pitch and get serious tomorrow.

"I can't give you names [of targeted players] at the moment because we are still trying to get them, and then we have to arrange transport for them to arrive in the morning."

A suitable replacement is unlikely to be a PSL player from any of the top clubs given the frosty relationship between the teams and the Bafana coach.

Last week, when he announced his 18-man squad to travel to Mauritius, Mashaba did not include players from Bidvest Wits, Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United.

Mashaba was at least able to conduct a training session yesterday, something he was barely able to do in the build-up to the first leg at Dobsonville Stadium a fortnight ago.

PSL clubs called their players back for pre-season camps, forcing him to cancel two training sessions as he did not have enough players. "But I still think things are more or less the same. The question is whether the players are focused or not."