With under three weeks to go until South Africa’s crucial double-header with Cape Verde Islands in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers‚ it was a decidedly mixed weekend for overseas-based players expected to form part of coach Stuart Baxter’s squad.
Bafana Bafana are in Cape Verde for the first game on September 1‚ before they host their opponents in Durban four days later.
Back-to-back victories would put Baxter’s side well on course for a place in Russia next year.
But some national team stars could go into the fixtures under-cooked‚ not least the French-based pair of Keagan Dolly and Kermit Erasmus‚ who have yet to feature for Montpellier and Stade Rennes so far this season.
Both were left out of the match-day squads for their respective teams at the weekend‚ with no explanation given.
Guingamp midfielder Lebogang Phiri featured for the last 20 minutes against Paris St Germain‚ playing in the debut match of Brazilian star Neymar.
He could not help his side slip to a 3-0 home loss though.