The SA Football Association (Safa) will wait for French-based Bongani Zungu to get back to South Africa before “dealing with” the player’s comments he has made about Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki‚ Safa president Danny Jordaan has said.

Jordaan said he had already spoken to Zungu on the phone about the matter‚ and the player had apologised to the Safa president.

Jordaan suggested that Safa would broker mending the relationship‚ should that be necessary‚ between the Amiens SC midfielder and Ntseki. This follows harsh criticism by Zungu regarding being left out of the Bafana squad in March for the ultimately postponed Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sao Tome and Principe.

Zungu had sarcastically tweeted “Wow”‚ accompanied by a laughing emoji‚ hours after Ntseki announced a squad on March 12 that surprisingly omitted the in-form midfielder. Zungu last month said in an interview on with Robert Marawa on the internet-based MarawaTV he was “shocked” to be left out.

“I don’t want to tell you what he said‚ but of course he did apologise. And we will deal with the matter when he’s back in South Africa‚” Jordaan said in a Zoom press conference with the SA Football Journalists Association (Safja).

The president revealed that Zungu also asked Safa to try to find a way for the player to return to South Africa given that Amiens have been declared officially relegated following Ligue 1’s 2019-20 season being cancelled due to the coronavirus.

Jordaan continued: “And sometimes players cannot deal with the disappointment once they get dropped.

“And he was very clear – he did not expect to be dropped. It was a huge shock for him. I don’t want to repeat the conversation. Because I asked him ‘why?’ [he said what he did].

“And we did have a good conversation‚ and I did give feedback to the coach.

“The coach has done very well with his players. And it’s in our interests to keep harmony in the squad.

“The relationship is good between the coach and the players‚ and it’s in our interest to keep it that way.

“We’ll wait until Bongani gets home. He wants to come home. His team‚ Amiens‚ has now been relegated.

“When he comes we’ll get Ntseki and we’ll deal with the matter.”

In his MarawaTV interview Zungu denied that any fallout between him and Ntseki might have been related to an injury that kept him out of the coach’s first match in charge‚ the 2-1 Mandela Challenge win against Mali in Port Elizabeth in October last year.