Coach Shakes Mashaba has had to deal with another surprise withdrawal in his chosen squad expect to face Sudan and Nigeria in the final two 2015 AFCON qualifiers.
May Mahlangu was called up to the Bafana Bafana for the first time under the new coach, but has withdrawn from the squad because he feels he is too fatigued to play for the national side.
The 25-year-old midfielder has just completed the Swedish season with IFK Gotebord, putting in a number of fine performances as they finished second in the league. However, he is on the verge of leaving the club as he has not seen his contract renewed.
Could there be an underlying reason why Mahlangu has pulled out of the squad or is the player just really fatigued after a long season?
There has been a lot of talk that Mahlangu has a few options to where he could play next season but it's still not yet clear. It's evident that the player is concerned that any injury might just hamper his options for a move in the future.
We have seen cases of this before in our national side as two current squad members Thulani Serero and Ayanda Patosi have done the same in the past, while down the line we had former captain Steven Pienaar and Benni McCarthy also pulling out.
Withdrawing from the national side when called upon is becoming a trend with our national players applying their trade aboard, and for some strange reason nobody seems to be able to get to the bottom of this problem.
I'm terribly disappointed that we will be without another star player for no apparent reason and I feel that the player needs to decide whether he is interested in playing international football or not.
How we should we go about correcting this problem in our national setup?
