Broos Explains 'Stressing' Morena Situation

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos has explained that he had to wait until 16h00 on the day he announced his final squad to make a decision on Mamelodi Sundowns player Thapelo Morena.

Morena was excluded from the final 26-man squad for the FIFA World Cup due to injury and, judging by how Broos explains it all, it was not an easy decision to make. After all, Morena has played an important part for Broos in the past and the coach would have loved to have him as part of the team, but it wsn't to be.

Check Out: Williams: We Will Carry The Nation

An injury Morena picked up has kept him out of the squad and there was just no guarantee that he would recover in time to play when the tournament gets underway on June 11.

Speaking to the media for the first time since announcing his final 26-man squad for the showpiece, Broos went into detail to describe how difficult it was to come to a decision to leave the Sundowns player out of his squad.

"We took the decision yesterday at 16h00. We knew that Thapelo was injured. We didn't know everything that could make us decide that he should go with us to Mexico, so that's why yesterday we had another scan to make and we had to wait for the results, so it was a little bit stressing waiting at !3h00, 14h00 in the afternoon and 15h00 in the afternoon. The doctor was stressed because we wanted to have the result first before we decided."

"At 15h30 or something, the doctor called me and said 'coach, can we see each other'. We were with the doctor and Helman (Mkhalele). The doctor explained the medical report and he didn't see an opportunity to take Thapelo with us. Thapelo I think in the next two weeks should not be able to train with the team. If you consider that, I don't think it was good to take him with us. Certainly it would not be honest towards other players to take Thapelo.

Check Out: Broos Confirms Bafana's Final Squad For World Cup

I talked to him yesterday after the announcement and it was an emotional moment, also for me, because I know Thapelo is somebody who can change the game. He did it already in the past for us. It was a hard decision to make, but like I said in the past, it's not my heart that decides, it's always my brain and that was certainly the case when we took the decision yesterday."

Bafana will play a friendly international against Nicaragua on Friday night and then leave for Mexico on Sunday. Their opening match at the World Cup is against Mexico on June 11.