A statement from SAFA said Thamsanqa Gabuza, Thabo Matlaba and Mpho Makola were due to leave on Wednesday to join up with the rest of the national team squad, which has since arrived in Costa Rica for Thursday’s international against their hosts.
Bafana Bafana play two matches on a Central American tour, against Costa Rica (04h00 kick-off Friday SA time) and Honduras next Tuesday (midnight kick-off SA time).
But there is likely to be a reluctance to allow the trio to travel the long distance to Costa Rica less than a day after they arrive back from a similar trip.
All three were involved in Pirates’ historic 4-3 away win over Al-Ahly of Egypt in Suez on Sunday night.
On Monday they travelled in searing heat by bus for three hours to Cairo Airport, then five hours by plane to Dubai and another eight to Johannesburg – with layovers in between – to arrive at around 17h00 on Tuesday.
They are due to fly again at 11h00 today, on what is a 10-hour inter-continental flight to Sao Paulo. From there they will face another tiring stop over in the airport before taking a similarly long plane journey to San Jose, the capita of Costa Rica.
Then there is still the matter of getting by car to Liberia, the town where the match is being played.
SAFA's insistence on the players travelling would seem to be an exercise in futility given the Pirates players are likely to be in no shape to play after flying virtually halfway around the world.