Bafana affect Cape Town City players – Benni

The latest player from City to be part of a Bafana Bafana squad is defender Thamsanqa Mkhize.

“I think Thami was massively affected by Bafana,” said McCarthy after his side’s 1-1 draw against Baroka on Tuesday. “It’s the story of our life also. Aubrey (Ngoma) goes to Bafana, he comes back injured. (Judas) Moseamedi goes, then gets injured. Mkhize goes, and then starts playing awful.

“He was absolutely terrible, and very poor. He was very poor by his standards, he worked hard, but he was not good enough. And I think form players like that, you expect a lot because you know what you’re going to get from him every single game, so it was a shock to see him like that after international duty,” added McCarthy.

“It could be from a variety of things,  tiredness, training twice while on national team duty and then trying to fit in back here. But I don’t want to make excuses. I think as professional players, they have to be a bit more consistent. But I think Bafana did affect him a lot.”