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Johannesburg - Defender Siboniso Gaxa has been called up to replace the injured Anele Ngcongca in the Bafana Bafana squad to face Brazil in an international friendly match on Friday.
The clash will take place at the Estadio do Morumbi, the home of local side Sao Paolo FC. Kickoff is at 15:45 local time in Brazil (20:45 SA time).
Bafana Bafana held their first training session at the CT Palmeiras grounds in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and all but three players were present at the first training session, under new head coach Gordon Igesund.
Greece-based defender Bongani Khumalo, Dino Ndlovu who plays in Israel are expected only on Wednesday, while Belgium-based defender Ngcongca has been ruled out due to a knee injury.
Ngcongca becomes the fourth player to pull out of the squad following the withdrawals of Steven Pienaar, Siyabonga Nomvethe and Edward Manqele.
"This is just a bad luck in terms of injuries. We have been dealing with nothing but withdrawals since the announcement of the squad last Thursday.
"It is a blow for us to be losing players like this, but there's not much we can do, we have to soldier on. I have called up right back Siboniso Gaxa from Kaizer Chiefs to replace Anele and I expect him to fly out on Wednesday morning to be here in the afternoon," said Igesund.
"This was my first training session and I was happy with what I saw. The players gave what I expected of them and the vibe was just great even though some of them were slightly tired from playing over the weekend and the travel as well."
The players also enjoyed the session.
It's good to be back and having returned to the national team it was just a great training session. It was our first but I really enjoyed myself. It was more relaxed and we were able as players to enjoy from the beginning to the end," said goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs.
The clash will take place at the Estadio do Morumbi, the home of local side Sao Paolo FC. Kickoff is at 15:45 local time in Brazil (20:45 SA time).
Bafana Bafana held their first training session at the CT Palmeiras grounds in Sao Paolo, Brazil, and all but three players were present at the first training session, under new head coach Gordon Igesund.
Greece-based defender Bongani Khumalo, Dino Ndlovu who plays in Israel are expected only on Wednesday, while Belgium-based defender Ngcongca has been ruled out due to a knee injury.
Ngcongca becomes the fourth player to pull out of the squad following the withdrawals of Steven Pienaar, Siyabonga Nomvethe and Edward Manqele.
"This is just a bad luck in terms of injuries. We have been dealing with nothing but withdrawals since the announcement of the squad last Thursday.
"It is a blow for us to be losing players like this, but there's not much we can do, we have to soldier on. I have called up right back Siboniso Gaxa from Kaizer Chiefs to replace Anele and I expect him to fly out on Wednesday morning to be here in the afternoon," said Igesund.
"This was my first training session and I was happy with what I saw. The players gave what I expected of them and the vibe was just great even though some of them were slightly tired from playing over the weekend and the travel as well."
The players also enjoyed the session.
It's good to be back and having returned to the national team it was just a great training session. It was our first but I really enjoyed myself. It was more relaxed and we were able as players to enjoy from the beginning to the end," said goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs.
