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Clubless Khune to give Bafana much needed stability

Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba yesterday said the impact of missing first-team regulars like Dean Furman will be massively felt but also opens an opportunity for the fringe players to make their mark.

Furman will miss Saturday’’s 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia with an knee injury while Sibusiso Vilakazi’’s buggered ankle also sees him missing out. The captain will be announced later in the week.

Mashaba has always been big on testing depth and while the West Africans may be an unknown quantity, nothing can be taken for granted in continental matches.

Moroka Swallows’’ Vuyisile Wana had his knee strapped up and did not take further part in training while the Orlando Pirates contingent who were on Caf Confederations Cup duty rocked up at the end of the training session yesterday.

Thuso Phala was also an absentee at training because of flu but Mashaba’s only other worry was the player’s rustiness as most of their leagues are in recess.

“In terms of where players like Furman played, it is a drawback because we now have to call on a new player to fill in that void and perform,” Mashaba said.

‘We will miss Dean along with Sibusiso but I hope they can recover very quickly because there are a lot of things we need to venture into. ‘In terms of the captaincy, we have what we call house captains because at every camp we elect two or three players to become captain in the day.

“All the boys are coming in cold from recess and there isn’t much to talk about from that regard. All of them look a little bit rusty. They are lacking that extra sharpness and quickness but I do think they should look better as the week wears on. You could see the players were dragging themselves but we will work on their sharpness.”

Clubless Itumeleng Khune’s inclusion lends some much needed stability in the goalkeeping department, despite the former Kaizer Chiefs stopper having a stop-start season due on injury and on-field discipline issues.

While Mashaba has often selected a good crop of keepers, he came under intense criticism at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations for being unable to stick to a first-choice keeper.

While Mashaba said he will continue with his policy of rotating keepers, he also admitted to not knowing much about Gambia.

“I haven’t taken much of my time to get to know what Gambia are about. We will know them on the day we play them because what happens when you see Ghana playing them with 10 good players and they come back with 10 useless players and when you adjust it becomes difficult. We just need to work on our strong and weak points so that we can be ready for the opposition,” Mashaba said.

“I want people to think back to when we started with this team and we said we are building up a team and now we have laid a good foundation. However, that foundation doesn’t say we must not look at other players because we also need to make sure that we give them a chance. If you look at the goalkeeping berth, we have three good goalkeepers from our league. On the day, we need to make sure that whoever makes the list gives off their best.”

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