Bafana Bafana head coach, Shakes Mashaba, says the injury to Rivaldo Coetzee did affect his side during their 3-1 loss to Algeria.
Multiple errors in the second half saw the Algerians claim a come from behind win in their opening Group C clash and Mashaba says Coetzee's injury was costly.
"It did affect us, without him in the central midfield, you could have seen they were playing long balls behind us, that's what killed us," Mashaba said in his post match conference.
"By losing him, yes, it cost us a lot, if you look at it after him going out, we were always allowing them to come one-on-one, we never had a sweeper."
Mashaba added there are aspects that need to be fixed ahead of their games with Senegal and Ghana.
"We need to motivate the guys, talk to them, bring them back to their feet," he added.
"You look at the time we lost the game, at crucial times, and the kind of goals we conceded, not at this level, the first goal was an own goal, the goalkeeper and his defence lacked the communication, the second goal as well, we allowed them stretch us and then they came through in the middle and they scored and I think those are the things we able to repair in the next game, it's that is has made work more difficult because the next two games that are coming are must wins."
