Kickoff (Cape Town)
26 September 2008
Bloemfontein Celtic has confirmed that goalkeeper Shuaib Walters and striker Petrus Mahlatsi will not be part of the Bafana Bafana team that takes on Malawi on Tuesday night.
The duo - who were called up by Bafana coach Joel Santana on Thursday - will, instead, travel with the Celtic team to the Mother City to face Ajax Cape Town next Wednesday.
The pull-out means that Santana will have to call up replacements as Ajax Cape Town has also told Safa that Brett Evans and Nazeer Allie will not be part of the squad as they are not obliged to release the pair as the match does not fall under official Fifa dates.
"On behalf of Celtic I want to thank Bafana coach Joel Santana and his technical team for selecting Shuaib and Petrus. This is indeed an honour for Bloemfontein Celtic," Celtic team manager Khumbulani Konco told Phunya Sele Sele's official website.
"It is unfortunate that we had to pull these players out of the squad. Upon receiving news of their call-ups we contacted Bafana manager Sipho Nkumane and informed him about our situation and we agreed that it would be in the best interests for the club to pull them out.
"We are playing on Sunday and again on Wednesday and we need these players for both these games.
"We hope that the Bafana technical team will call upon these players in the near future. We want to ensure them of our support for the national team and we promise to always co-operate with them in future call-ups.
"We are not going to pay the slightest attention to his call-ups," said Thabiso Mekuto, the Ajax spokesman in a Sapa report.
"Releasing your captain (Evans) and another starting player a day before the match is unthinkable. No team can do that."
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