Covid-19 hits Bafana Bafana camp, two players potentially ruled out

The Bafana Bafana Cosafa Cup squad has been struck by the coronavirus pandemic, with one player and one official testing positive for Covid-19, effectively ruling them out of the competition, which starts on Tuesday.

The player is SuperSport United’s young right back Keenan Phillips, and the official is Bafana goalkeeper coach Monde Hlatshwayo.

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Another player has also had to isolate after coming into close contact with Phillips.

Bafana team doctor Tshepo Molobi confirmed these details on Friday – Bafana’s first match of the Cosafa Cup is on July 6 against Botswana.

The team have been training in Johannesburg ahead of the competition, which will take place in Port Elizabeth from July 6-18.

“The entire team tested on July 1, and we got the results back with two positive cases – one for a player and one for an official,” said Molobi.

“We have immediately started the process of correcting, and there is also an issue of one close contact of one player who has also been isolated. Currently all three individuals are asymptomatic and doing well.

“With the close contact player, we will monitor his symptoms, and if there are any between now and day six or seven we will repeat the test. Depending on the result of that the coaching staff may decide he can be reintroduced into the squad.”

Molobi admitted that this was unlikely to be the case with the player and official who have already tested positive.

“I suspect that (leaving them out) will be the case. If you look at the timelines, day one starts today. That would literally mean they would have to isolate until around July 11th and the tournament concludes on the 18th. There is also very little time for a player to be reintroduced because post isolation there needs to be a second round of testing, and we would also need to monitor the player. The demands on an athlete post-infection are quite high, we wouldn’t want to compromise any player.”

With the country in the middle of an intense third wave of the pandemic, there is a reasonable question over whether the Cosafa Cup should be happening at all. However, Chief Medical Officer of the South African Football Association has assured protocol is in place to conduct the tournament in a bio-safe environment.

“Covid … has been here for some time, but we still need to thrive, so we had to make sure there were measures in place,” Ngwenya told the Cosafa Show Podcast

“We have employed the same protocols as we did with previous (Cosafa) tournaments last year, we are going into a bio-safe environment.

“Think of it as an island …. the island is going to be sanitised, deep cleaned and we will ensure that anyone who goes in to the island is tested and cleared before they can go. They will be tested 72 hours before they go into the … bio-bubble in PE. Everyone will have to wear masks, and will have to sanitise.

“In the bubble there will still be more testing done, after the group stage games we will test everyone for a second time, to make sure everyone is safe.From the quarterfinals into the semifinals we will retest again.”