Bafana Bafana coach Molefi Ntseki has revealed details of a "lengthy discussion" he had with Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune regarding his current situation.
Khune has been on the receiving end of copious amounts of criticism and backlash over his performances for Chiefs in recent times.
The 33-year-old has endured indifferent form since the start of the season, having been drafted in and out of coach Gavin Hunt's starting line-up on several occasions.
Despite the negativity surrounding the veteran shotstopper, Ntseki has explained why he opted to retain his services in the 26-man squad to face Ghana and Sudan in AFCON qualifiers later this month.
"When it comes to Khune, yes, he made glaring mistakes against SuperSport United and Black Leopards [in December] but when I spoke to coach Lee Baxter about the situation, he said to me, they brought Khune in a meeting to find out what actually happened," Ntseki explained.
"As Khune was explaining, it was just one of those mistakes that you make in your career, that you want to forget as quickly as possible, because he explained that he was trying to play from the back and as a result they read into the pass and he made that mistake.
"Recently, I also spoke to Itumeleng about his situation, we had a very lengthy telephonic discussion and he was explaining to me what he's going through as a person, as an individual.
"What I said to him is that, 'You must also consider giving respect to your career and the profession that you are in, and you are not growing any younger so it is also important for you to be a leader in terms of how you do things around.'"
The former junior national team mentor further defended that Khune is no different to an average human susceptible to a rough patch in life, and sees the recent happenings as no different.
"I think any human being or individual has got those bad patches in life, and I think Itumeleng Khune is no different from all of that," Ntseki concluded.
View a recap of Khune's league statistics from the last 10 seasons