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Pirates star Goodman Mosele absconded from Bafana squad, says coach Broos

Tiisetso Malepa Sports reporter
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says Orlando Pirates star Goodman Mosele cannot be reached.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos says Orlando Pirates star Goodman Mosele cannot be reached.
Image: ©Shaun Roy/BackpagePix

Goodman Mosele is out of the Bafana Bafana squad to face Ethiopia in crucial back-to-back qualifiers for the 2022 Qatar Fifa World Cup next week after the Orlando Pirates central midfielder “absconded” from his national team call-up.

The 21-year-old Stilfontein star played in the 1-1 Premiership draw against Cape Town City in Cape Town on Saturday but Bafana coach Hugo Broos said on Monday that Mosele was nowhere to be found when the team assembled for camp on Sunday.

“Sadly Goodman has absconded,” said the 69-year-old Africa Cup of Nations-winning coach. “We have tried reaching him to no avail and this is extremely disappointing.” 

Mosele misses out on a glorious opportunity to impress the Bafana coach and will hope that the Belgian is forgiving of his apparent antics. Broos called up 22-year-old SuperSport United midfielder Jesse Donn in place of Mosele in a like-for-like replacement.

“We are very happy that Donn has heeded the call and reported for duty almost immediately,” said Broos.

The Bafana coach was dealt another blow when Mamelodi Sundowns centre-back Mosa Lebusa was released from the squad with a niggling injury that saw him miss the game against Pirates.

“This is unfortunate,” said Bafana team doctor Tshepo Moboli. “Lebusa was assessed on the first day (Sunday) of camp and he has been nursing an injury which he had hoped would heal before reporting for national duty.

“The nature of his injury is that of a right quad strain and we would rather not risk further injury, hence he has been released from camp, back into the care of his club. We are taking the safer approach as we do not want to see Mosa being sidelined for longer than is necessary with this type of injury.”

Another SuperSport youngster, 21-year-old Luke Fleurs, was roped in as Lebusa’s replacement.

Fleurs joined camp on Monday for his first involvement with the Bafana set-up and could not hide his excitement.

“I’ve played under-17 and also recently played at the Tokyo Olympics. This is my first call up for the senior men’s national team and I’m going to make the most of it,” said Fleurs.

Donn and Fleurs joined Bafana as the team had its first training session at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto on Monday ahead of their matches against the Walias of Ethiopia in Bahir Dar on Saturday October 9 and in Johannesburg on Tuesday October 12.

The fitness of the full team will be assessed on Tuesday and Wednesday before departing for Bahir Dar.

Bafana top Group G on four points after two qualifiers after a goalless draw against Zimbabwe in Harare and a 1-0 win over Ghana at FNB Stadium last month.

With Ethiopia and Ghana second and third respectively on three points, and Zimbabwe propping up the group with one point, back-to-back wins will take Bafana to pole position for qualification to the final round.

Broos will be hoping that Ghana and Zimbabwe cancel each other out when they meet in the Cape Coast and in Harare on the same days as Bafana tackle Ethiopia.

Twin wins would see Bafana strengthen their grip at the top of their group on 10 points ahead of the final two qualifiers against Ghana away and Zimbabwe at home in November.

Africa has 10 groups and the 10 group winners will be drawn into five head-to-head, two-legged ties to earn one of the five places at the Qatar World Cup.