South Africa will head into camp on Saturday for their 2018 COSAFA Cup campaign‚ heading immediately for Polokwane where the two-week tournament will be held.

Coach Stuart Baxter’s side will only be involved from the second week‚ with their quarterfinal against the winner of first round Group A to be played on June 3.

But before then Baxter will have a precious week to work with the players‚ many new to the national team set-up with the prospect of three matches should the side win their first knockout game.

The side will train for the first time on Sunday‚ and are planning a friendly against a local Limpopo club on Monday.

They will be staying at The Ranch‚ just outside of Polokwane.

They will play one of African Nations Cup qualifier opponents Seychelles‚ Comoros‚ Madagascar or Mozambique in their quarterfinal‚ most likely one of the latter two.

But this coming week will also be an excellent chance for Baxter to scout the Seychelles side‚ who Bafana Bafana will play in back-to-back Nations Cup qualifiers in October and are unlikely to be changed much from the full-strength side they have brought to the COSAFA Cup tournament.

Baxter wants to use the competition to blood new players at senior level‚ hoping to find some gems ahead of the resumption of the Nations Cup qualifiers in September.

The likes of Luther Singh (Sporting Braga‚ Portugal)‚ Siphesihle Ndlovu (Maritzburg United)‚ Aubrey Modiba (SuperSport United)‚ Gift Links (Al Alassiouty‚ Egypt) and Innocent Maela (Orlando Pirates) will all play in the tournament with that in mind.

There will also be some motivation for the players to perform beyond catching Baxter’s eye.

SowetanLIVE revealed that Manchester United are sending their scout to the competition‚ while French Ligue 1 side Lille‚ who already have Lebo Mothiba on their books‚ are another who will be scouting at the competition.