A concerned Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is adamant Percy Tau’s recent injury woes stem from lack of fitness. He put forward the unrealistic recommendation that the 27-year-old Al Ahly star needs to train at least for six months without playing a competitive game to rehabilitate.

Owing to a knee injury, Tau won’t be part of Bafana's team that will face Guinea and France in international friendlies. Royal AM striker Victor Letsoalo has replaced him. This was confirmed by Broos during a media conference at Dobsonville Stadium in Soweto on Monday.

Bafana take on Guinea in Belgium on Friday (7pm SA time). The world champions will then host SA four days later, on March 29 (9.15pm SA time).

“Percy won’t be there. He’s injured again. It becomes a little problem with Percy since I arrived. In September he had problems with his transfer to Al Ahly, so he wasn’t ready for the two games we played against Ethiopia [in the World Cup qualifiers in October and November] because he was injured. Even in the last two games against Zimbabwe and Ghana he wasn’t 100% and he returned with an injury, and now he’s injured again,” said Broos.

“I think for Percy it will be good that he trains now for six months without playing because his physical basic isn’t good. I think every time he plays, he’s overloaded and he gets injuries. He’s playing too much games when he doesn’t have physical opportunities to do that.”

While he has his fingers crossed that Tau would have had healed fully when they play the 2023 Ivory Coast Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers in June, Broos fears his star forward’s injury woes might persist for a while. 

“I hope that one day it [Tau’s injury woes] will stop because he’s a very important player for us but I am also a little bit afraid that it goes on and we have a problem even in June. Let’s hope it won’t be like that. We called Letsoalo on Saturday after we knew Percy won’t be available,” said Broos.