BAFANA Bafana received a shot in the arm ahead of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers in June.
This after striker Lebo Mothiba played his first match for his club Strasbourg in over two years when he came on in the 76 minutes against Keagan Dolly’s former club Montpellier in the French Cup on Sunday.
The 25-year-old has been troubled by the knee injury and his last game, ironically, was against Dolly’s club then Montpellier in February 2020.
He had the chance to play his first game against Clermont on 22 December last year, but that game was postponed in the last minutes. But Mothiba, when he came on at that time in the Coupe De France match against Montpellier on Sunday, Strasbourg, which Katlego Mphela also played for, were 1-0 down and chasing the game.
They launched long balls to provide the service to the Bafana Bafana striker. While there were deliveries inside the box, they were all thwarted away by Montpellier who progressed to the next stage.
Having missed both the whole 2021 Afcon qualifiers and World Cup qualifiers, Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos will hope Mothiba’s injury is the thing of the past as he started his national team career well. Mothiba helped Bafana qualify for the 2019 Afcon finals in Egypt.
He’ll forever be remembered for laying a pass to Thembinkosi Lorch when Bafana stunned Mohamed Salah’s Egypt 1-0 in the round of 16 in that tournament.
There’s also good news as Bongani Zungu is making his way back to full fitness with Ligue 2 side Amiens SC.
Zungu, whose contract with Amiens will expire on 30 June and is set to leave then, played the entire match as Philippe Hinschberger’s side beat Linas –Montlhery on penalty shoot outs after the game ended 3-3. Zungu scored a second penalty as Amiens won 4-3.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder, who was Bafana top scorer with two goals in the Afcon in 2019, unlike Mothiba, featured in two matches of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, all against Sao Tome.
He scored in a 2-0 win in Durban on 13 November 2020, and featured three days later against the same opponents as Bafana won 4-2 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.
At that time Zungu was on loan at Scotland Premier League side Rangers. The Scottish giants had a clause in the contract to sign him permanently; however, they couldn’t after Zungu broke Covid-19 nation’s curfew as he was involved in a house party with a few Rangers players.
Rangers then decided not to take up the option at the end of the season, where they won the league title.
