Hugo Broos: Bafana Bafana in good shape for AFCON despite missing players

Speaking at the University of Pretoria's High Performance Centre, where the national team is currently in camp ahead of their departure to Morocco, Broos said he still considers himself better off than many of his counterparts across the continent.

The AFCON finals will take place from 21 December to 18 January, and Broos is managing the availability of Siyabonga Ngezana, Lyle Foster, Siphephelo Sithole and standby travelling player Chandre Campbell.

Ngezana is expected to feature for his Romanian club tomorrow night, while the others may also fulfil club commitments over the weekend.

Broos does not believe any of them should return to South Africa before linking up with the squad in Morocco.

Broos and his assistant, Helman Mkhalele, also criticised FIFA's decision to cut the release period for African players from two weeks to one week, calling the move disrespectful to CAF and the African continent.

"It's a little problem. Not a big problem. I am happy to be the coach of a team whose majority of players are local because we can start the camps. I don't think my colleagues in other countries are so lucky at the moment," said Broos.

"It means players abroad cannot be with their national teams before the 15th. I wonder how countries like Morocco, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Mali, which rely entirely on overseas players, will cope.

"They get their players on the 15th and six days later Morocco play the opening match. That shows what FIFA thinks about CAF and Africa. I'm sure European clubs pushed them into it.

"I don't think you can ask those players to travel to be here on Monday and then fly to Morocco on Wednesday. I'm thinking of leaving them with their clubs so they can join us in Morocco."

In their preparations, Bafana Bafana have lined up a training match against Ghana on Tuesday.

He added: "It wasn't easy to find a friendly, but at least we found one. Next Tuesday we will play Ghana. We know it won't be their strongest team because they also have player availability issues. This is not a selection game, just training. It's not important that we are playing against a weakened Ghana."