Benni McCarthy (File)

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Comment: Rob Houwing, Sport24 chief writer

Cape Town – Even up to some two or three weeks ago, I stubbornly counted myself among the “hang onto Benni” lobby for Bafana Bafana.

I retained my conviction at that point that Benni McCarthy, the 32-year-old striker with goal-scoring experience from two prior World Cups and solid top-flight credentials in the blue-chip leagues of Europe and England, would remain a useful squad presence – at the very least – for the king-size 2010 spectacle on our shores.

Naively, it now seems, I believed the healthy whiff of World Cup cordite, with its heightened poignancy this time, would be the device to spur the burly forward to a fervent crash course in restored fitness.

Everybody had giggled, after all, at his struggle every time to wiggle his wide girth into those unforgiving tight jerseys that are the vogue among modern soccer and rugby teams alike.

You might have thought that very indignity, too, would serve as an inspiration for a once sterling warrior to get his act together on that front, there being no special evidence to suggest he has simultaneously shed vast amounts of his undoubted talent and predatory instinct.

As he joined Carlos Alberto Parreira’s national group for their lead-up campaign in both camp mode and friendly-match combat, it is hard to imagine he was not given some sort of “shape up or ship out” target -- especially after his relatively new club employers West Ham had made crystal clear their own insistence that he return in pre-season in a greatly better personal state or face sanction.

If McCarthy was given a specific “meet XYZ weight-loss requirement by XYZ date” ultimatum, which arguably would have been a fair enough ultimatum, we may never know whether he was actually on track with it. To the naked eye, it rather seemed not.

As far as I am aware, McCarthy has no rare physical condition either adding to a propensity for weight gain, or precluding the shedding of kilograms in a relative hurry.

It has been months, not weeks, where “Bulging Benni” or “Ballooning Benni” have been stock lines of scorn and mirth in the popular press, so it isn’t as if there hasn’t been time for a realistic turnaround.

In confirming on Tuesday that McCarthy had missed the cut, Parreira cleverly chose less to dwell on the five culled players than on those who had extended their Bafana tickets.

He commended especially the “personal preparation” of Siyabonga Nomvethe, the other veteran among the forwards, who was born only 20 days later than McCarthy in late 1977 and is something of a miracle returnee to World Cup football.

Parreira hardly needed to say more: it was clear as the living daylight that the Moroka Swallows man had simply put his hand up with greater gusto than the sometimes brooding, swaggering Benni.

Whether Nomvethe, especially, brings anything better to the party than McCarthy might have is highly questionable.

Not much more than 18 months ago, a good “touch” chemistry in advanced positions on the park had existed for Bafana between McCarthy and Teko Modise, the midfielder who remains part of the furniture but who has struggled himself for optimum form levels more recently.

McCarthy ought not be a spent force for South Africa.

At the end of the day, he just didn’t seem to want it enough, and I am comfortable with Parreira’s decision.