Bafana Bafana striker Lebo Mothiba had a double delight on Thursday when he completed a loan move to Ligue 1 side Troyes and signed a new contract with mother club Strasbourg.

Mothiba, who has recently returned from almost two years on the sidelines with knee and hamstring issues, has the chance to get his career back on track at Troyes, but has also had faith shown in him by Strasbourg with the contract extension.

It seems an odd situation that a player should be loaned out and have his contract extended at the same time, but what all parties recognise now is that Mothiba needs game time more than anything else.

Tellingly, Strasbourg have insisted that there is no option for Troyes to buy the 25-year-old at the end of the loan, which suggests they see him as a part of their squad for the 2022-23 campaign.

“The Racing Club of Strasbourg Alsace and ESTAC Troyes have reached an agreement on the SA striker's loan, without a purchase option, until the end of the 2021-22 season,” Strasbourg said in a statement.

“Racing and the player also agreed a one-year extension of the attacker's contract. He is now linked to the Alsatian club until June 30, 2024.”

Mothiba will potentially make his debut for Troyes against Metz in a Ligue 1 game on February 6. One of his rivals for a place in the team is Guinea-Bissau forward Mame Balde, who played at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, but is already back with his club after their first-round exit.

The news of the loan should be a boost to Bafana coach Hugo Broos ahead of the start of the 2023 Nations Cup qualifiers later in the year. If Mothiba can hit the ground running he may even be ready to play against France in SA’s friendly international in late March.

But for now he will just be relieved to be given the chance to play again, having only managed 15 minutes since a horror knee injury against Keagan Dolly’s Montpellier in February 2020.

He appears to be over his injury problems though and passed a stringent set of medical examinations ahead of the Troyes move. He has certainly impressed in training. 

“I had almost forgotten the power he has. He’s a bull,” Strasbourg captain Dimitri Liénard said this week.

Troyes are struggling near the foot of the Ligue 1 table and have brought in Mothiba to provide ammunition upfront. Only the bottom two, Saint Etienne and Lorient, have scored fewer than their 20 goals in 22 games.

He has netted 18 goals in 47 starts for Lille and Strasbourg in the French top-flight, so knows his way to goal, but also understands that form is temporary for strikers.

“Sometimes there are games where you do well‚ score goals and everyone says you are great‚” Mothiba previously told TimesLIVE.

“But then sometimes you can go five or six games without scoring a goal and the fans start saying‚ ‘This one is not a good striker’.

“I can just do my best and if I get the opportunity to score goals‚ that is what I will try to do.”