Broos: How we made the Morena decision

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has detailed how they left it until the last hour to make a decision on Thapelo Morena eventually not making the 26-man squad for the World Cup.

Morena got injured ahead of Mamelodi Sundowns' two-legged CAF Champions League final against AS FAR Rabat and not only was he chasing to play in the final, but his World Cup spot was already at stake.

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There were hopes that the 32-year-old could make the final Bafana squad after he travelled with Sundowns to Morocco for the second leg, though he was not included in the match-day squad.

After announcing the final 26-man roster, with the two-time Champions League winner excluded, Broos revealed that the versatile player's fate was largely with the medical team.

"As I said, we made the decision yesterday at 4'oclock. We knew that Thapelo was injured but we didn’t know everything that could make us decide whether to take him to Mexico or drop him," Broos told the media after announced the squad this week.

"Yesterday (Tuesday), he had another scan and we had to wait for the results. It was stressful. We wanted to have the results first before we decided. At 03:30 or something, the doctor called me in my room and said, 'Coach, can we see each other?'

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"We were with the doctor, me, Helman (Mkhalele) and the physical coach. The doctor explained the medical report. We didn't see the opportunity to take Thapelo with us. Thapelo should be in the next two weeks not able to train with the national team and if you consider that, I don't think it was good to take him with us.

"Certainly it would not be honest to other players to take Thapelo, we should drop someone else for that and not be sure that Thapelo would be ready for the second game and that made us decide not to take Thapelo with us," explained the Belgian.