Kompany says Foster ‘just can’t’ play for Bafana right now

Burnley head coach Vincent Kompany said on Thursday that striker Lyle Foster is not in a position to play for Bafana Bafana at the moment, not long after the striker was named in Hugo Broos’ preliminary squad for the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Foster has been given time out of the game by his English Premier League side, as they assist him in dealing with mental health issues.

While Kompany has said that Foster is making good progress, he appeared to all-but rule the striker out of returning to the Bafana side at the Afcon, which begins in the Ivory Coast on January 16 .

“Unfortunately at the moment he’s not in a position where he can go to the national team, he just can’t,” he said, as quoted by the Burnley Express.

“It’s not something he can do at the moment, going away for a long time and being in a very different environment.

“His love for his country has no limits and his desire to do well has no limits, but that would be going against the advice of every expert who has been assisting him in recent months.”

“The conversations are ongoing,” added Kompany.

“I’m a coach from African origin so the AFCON is very important and I feel very proud of any player representing us there because that tournament deserves the same importance as the Euros.

“But for his condition specifically, the human being, which is the person we’ve treated in the past month, he’s not at a stage yet where he can do any of that.

“Hopefully in the future he will be able to do much more for everybody on the big stage, but it’s step by step.”

No timeframe

Kompany, meanwhile, said that Burnley had also been working hard on Foster’s physical fitness while he has not been playing. The 23 year-old last played for Burnley against Brentford on October 21.

“We’re still following him closely, he’s still receiving treatment. But we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to work with him on the fitness side and physically he’s in a good place.”

“It started elsewhere and then we’re progressing into the next phase.

“I’m not able to put a timeframe on it (his return to the side). What is important for me is that physically he’s in a good place and it seems like we’ve made progress, so we’ll see.”