After skipping the Cosafa Cup, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is also set to give the African Nations Championship (Chan) qualifiers a miss.

A youthful Bafana - effectively an SA under-23 team - took part in the Cosafa Cup wrapped up in Durban on Sunday under the guidance of assistant coach Helman Mkhalele. SA were knocked out of the quarterfinals and went on to win the Plate by defeating Botswana 2-1 at Sugar Ray Xulu Stadium on Sunday.

Bafana beat Madagascar 2-1 in the Plate final.

After the win in the Plate final, Mkhalele said the young SA squad will largely stay together and look to help Bafana qualify for the 2023 Chan, which will be staged in Algeria.

Mkhalele also revealed he will coach the side in the Chan qualifier against Comoros, with the first leg in the Indian Ocean island country scheduled for Friday.

Broos has made his dislike of playing friendlies against weaker opponents known and his decision to skip Cosafa raised some eyebrows.

“Looking at the amount of time, and because the next game is on Friday, to assemble a new team would be suicidal for us,” Mkhalele said.

“That is because most players not here in camp with us are in preseason with their clubs.

“But at least with the ones who are here we have an opportunity to test and see the level of our players in terms of the tactical and technical abilities and their conditioning.”

“We feel they are in the right frame of mind for us to go and compete against Comoros.”

The away leg between SA and Comoros is scheduled for Friday while the return leg will be played on July 30 at Dobsonville Stadium.

Mkhalele will be hoping by the time they play Comoros, who bowed out of the Cosafa Cup early, their sharpness upfront would have improved.