South Africa coach not giving up on Mbokazi ahead of World Cup

South Africa U20 coach Raymond Mdaka is optimistic about having Orlando Pirates defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi for the forthcoming U20 World Cup to be played in Chile.

The African champions, Amajita, are in Group E alongside the United States, France, and New Caledonia. Coach Mdaka is happy to have most of the players he wanted ahead of the tournament that kicks off on September 27.

However, he still hopes to have the services of Bucs assistant captain Mbokazi, who has been included in the Bafana Bafana team to play Lesotho and Nigeria, respectively, in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers scheduled for Friday, September 5, and Tuesday, September 9. The Amajita tactician hopes he will have the teenager for the global competition.

‘Mbokazi is somebody we would like to have'

“You know, we said to ourselves that we are without him but we are with him in spirit. I'm not gonna comment that much about that because we might have him, so you never know,” he said as quoted by SABC Sport.

“Obviously, we'd like [to have him] because he's one player who has grown within the team. He's been part of the preparations, he's been part of us, he's been key, so, he's somebody that we'd like to have, but we'll always understand situations.

“As much as I can't comment for now to say indeed we have him or we don't have him but we have him in our list. For instance, in this camp, he has gone to Bafana and they are doing the World Cup Qualifiers, so it's something that is very understandable but we still believe chances are, we're gonna have him,” he added.

Challenging to trim the squad

Mdaka has most of his star players available, which makes the task of naming his final squad challenging.

“Quite complex, huh? It's quite challenging, but honestly, we're very happy with what we're seeing. This is our fourth day, we dropped in on Sunday, we had a session on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and today, and I think 90% of the group that is here are those players that we started with early in our first camps,” he continued.

“So, it looks to be going well, it's just complex and difficult because we have our 30 players with us here, 29 actually, Mabena [Siyabonga] is not here because of the minor injury that he's having.

“Out of this, we need to come out with 21 and that's quite challenging, but honestly, it has been a very good preparatory camp. It's giving us some of the areas because we're not starting afresh; we are starting from somewhere just to see where we can close down, where we can improve. I think so far, so good, we're getting on the right track, we just wish and pray that we don't get injuries,” Mdaka concluded.