Bafana Bafana head coach, Molefi Ntseki cleared up the previous misunderstanding he had with Ernst Middendorp regarding Eric Mathoho.
Kaizer Chiefs' head coach, Middendorp told the media last month that he struggled to get hold of Ntseki regarding Mathoho, after he was flagged with an injury scare, but still remained in camp with Bafana Bafana in preparation for Mali.
"My biggest concern at the moment is Erick Mathoho because we have no control over him. I tried to get hold of Molefi to ask what's happening and so far, I haven't received a response, but okay I asked the medical staff then to go into it," Middendorp told local media in October.
However, speaking to the media, Ntseki confirmed the misunderstanding between the two parties, adding that the matter was cleared up as Mathoho ended up being fit to play the full 90 minutes in the Nelson Mandela Challenge clash against Mali last month.
"People don't know my relationship with Coach Ernst Middendorp, we worked together at Celtic, and we produced players together at Celtic, we have got a very good relationship," he said.
"I think there was just a misunderstanding between his medical team in terms of the report that was sent to us through our medial team to say that Mathoho is ready and we rested him for two sessions when we were training in Joburg and he joined the team and did very well. And again, when you talk about Mathoho, he has been around for quite some time, he can't play with an injury, not for Chiefs, not for the national team so he got a clean bill of health from our medical team and that is why we played him for 90 minutes," Ntseki told the media.
"That's why I am saying it was just a misunderstanding, actually we spoke about it when it came to Manyama that before the game they had challenges and I was made aware, we spoke about the possibility. After the game we also had a chat to say that now Lebo is in the team. So he is very happy, I got a call from him wishing the team best of luck," he added.
