Broos expects full Sundowns contingent in Algeria

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is expecting a full squad in Algeria for friendly internationals against the hosts and Andorra over the next week, and says he knows nothing about injuries to key players.

You play Andorra on Thursday, how are things in camp following your arrival in Algeria on Monday?

We had a good night’s rest, but I’m not so happy for the moment. We had an exhausting trip of 30 hours. We had three different flights and a lot of waiting time at the airport. We are still waiting for eight players, they will arrive this season around 9pm, but they have had to make the same trip. It will be problematic for those players to play in the game on Thursday. Travelling in Africa is very difficult, but I think we can prepare better trips than that. When you are 30 hours, there has to be a better solution that can make it 20 hours. Maybe we did not prepare the trip very well.

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rhulani Mokwena said some players, like Ronwen Williams and Teboho Mokwena are injured and might not travel. Can you shed any light on that?

If they are really injured, they (Sundowns) must tell us, but we have not heard anything. They know the phone number of our team doctor, call him and give him a medical report. If they do not do it, it means they are fit. I cannot go on rumours; they must give me a medical report. I don’t like those kind of things, saying things in the press, they must call us and tell us what the problem is. So for me, they are fit.

Before we get into the Andorra game, there have also been media reports in Belgium linking you with a technical director role at Club Brugge. Have you been approached by them?

I know I am a candidate and there is nothing more or less than that. If you do such performances with the team (a third-place finish at the Africa Cup of Nations), then automatically there is interest in you as a coach. Algeria were said to be interested, then Tunisia and now Brugge. But there are no negotiations, nor have I seen the people of Brugge. I only know I am on the list. I am contracted with South Africa to 2026, so if I wanted to leave I would have to negotiate with SAFA.

What are you hoping to get out of these two games against Andorra and Algeria?

I hope we can continue with what we put together at Afcon. We saw what the South African team can do. We have a good team, we have shown it several times. We have some new younger players with us, I hope they can show me that I can count on them for the qualifiers for World Cup and the 2025 Afcon. Little by little we can put those players in the team. We need to renew this squad a little bit and put in younger players so we can build for the long term. Even the players of Sundowns said the difference between Afcon games and Champions League is big. It means we can look at the level of the players and see if they are ready for international games. I would rather try those players now than in June when we have World Cup qualifiers.

You will be expected to beat 164-ranked Andorra on Thursday…

Andorra always lose their games, but only with 1-0 or 2-1, so it will be tough. But again, it is about having the chance to look at new players for World Cup in 2026, there are some new players we will have to find for that team. Themba (Zwane) will be 37 if we qualify for the World Cup, so it is usual we would look for alternates. Maybe he will be fit and then there won’t be a problem. But we have several players in our group that are over 30. It is better to look for new players now than wait until we have cannot give us what we need anymore. We should be looking at all positions to have young players who show us they can play at international level. I don’t say we will replace them right now, but we have to start to think about it.

What is the latest with Lyle Foster?

Foster played 10 minutes for Burnley on Saturday, that means his injury problems are over. I will try to have contact with (Burnley coach) Vincent Kompany in the next week and maybe when I am in Europe I can go and see a game, talk to Kompany and Foster, and see what we can expect from him. This is for the World Cup qualifier games in June (away in Nigeria and home to Zimbabwe).

In general are you happy with your scouting network in Europe?

Yes. We know very well who is playing in Europe, where they are playing and how they are playing. We don’t need 10 scouts to know how these players are. When I see a player in the third division (in Europe), I don’t know how this player can give us more quality than we already have. Siyabonga Ngezana had a very good season (in Romania), and we discussed whether he should go to Afcon. We decided not because it would have been his first time with the team and that makes it hard to get him up to speed. Now we call him and he has lost his documents to travel, so he is stuck in Romania! It is not because of us that he is not here, it is because of him.

You had a meeting with PSL chairman Dr Irvin Khoza recently, how did that go?

It was not a long meeting, he said, ‘I am representing 16 professional teams. I don’t want to have this meeting with only you and me, I think it is better other people are here as I cannot speak for them’. So we will have the meeting at the end of April. I can understand his feelings about that, so it is no problem at all.

Do you worry about player burnout at the end of the season ahead of those June World Cup qualifiers, like we saw when you went to Rwanda in November?

Rwanda came at a very bad moment for us. I said it already, when we started the camp for Benin and Rwanda, we had an exhausted group. We had to adapt our training and we managed to have relatively fresh team for Benin, but after the game we said, ‘let’s hope we can do the same thing in Rwanda’ because we knew the players were tired. The travel was exhausting, the players were exhausted. We were not a fresh team and lost the game. In June we go to Nigeria and then play at home against Zimbabwe. We will go to Nigeria on a direct flight, which will make a big difference. The PSL finishes at the end of May, so there will be some days for players to rest.