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Johannesburg - Four months ago, Orlando Pirates striker Kermit Erasmus made the news headlines after turning down a national team call-up for the 2017 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Gambia.
The 25-year-old insisted that he is not a back-up player who can only be considered after the preferred player decided not to pitch.
The Port Elizabeth-born star was called up as a replacement for Tokelo Rantie after the Bournemouth Ace failed to report for national duty due to family commitments.
In response to the call-up, Erasmus sent a not-so-subtle message to head coach Shakes Mashaba, citing that he will not honour the national team via his official twitter account.
Mashaba ended up replacing Rantie with Erasmus' striking partner at the Buccaneers, Thamsanqa Gabuza.
Erasmus hinted that at the time he felt that he deserved to be considered and not as a back-up player after finishing the 2014/15 season with a 15 goals tally for the Buccaneers in all competitions.
However, the former SuperSport United star said he wants to represent South Africa again and he will continue to work hard to achieve this goal.
“At the time I felt that I was on top of my game with the performance I was giving," said Erasmus.
“I felt that I deserved to be selected to play in the national team. I tweeted what I tweeted because I was so frustrated to be considered as a back-up player.
“My tweet was to get people around the country to understand how I felt at the time because we do get frustrated as footballers too, we are also human beings.
“We are all humans and we all want to represent the national team and personally, I still want to play for the national team. And I will always work hard towards that.”
Meanwhile, Erasmus will be taking to the field at Orlando Stadium on Wednesday with his team-mates in a Absa Premiership fixture against Bidvest Wits.
Kick-off is at 19:30.
