The South Africa national football team is set to commence with their 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers next week Thursday when they meet North African giants Morocco in the first of their Group K qualifiers.
Bafana Bafana will depart for Morocco on Saturday ahead of the encounter and have a full contingent to choose from after the likes of Ronwen Williams, Lyle Lakay and Innocent Maela were all cleared following minor injury concerns.
Star forward Percy Tau also arrived back in South Africa on Wednesday after competing for the 2022 CAF Champions League title on Monday evening, where he suffered a 2-0 defeat with Al Ahly against Wydad Casablanca.
Tau has been backed to bounce back from that disappointment by national team coach Hugo Broos, who expressed his pleasure at seeing the 28-year-old return to his best form after struggling for form earlier in the season.
"I am very happy that [Percy Tau] is here and I was pleased to see that he is showing more freshness in his games than in his previous games with us because this was not the Percy Tau that we know," Broos said.
"I hope that I will see him again like I saw him in Belgium – a good player, a player who can be decisive for our team.
"The only thing, I think, is that we will have to give him a little bit of time to recover mentally after the [Champions League] defeat and the subsequent criticism that his team and coach received in Egypt.
"I am sure and I am confident that, with his teammates, and all the others in our group, they will support him and that he will be ready as soon as possible to be ready to play the game on Thursday and help us get a good result."
