Ajax Cape Town goalkeeper Moeneeb Josephs was on Monday invited to join the Bafana Bafana squad in Johannesburg ahead of their World Cup qualifier against Cape Verde in Bloemfontein on Saturday.
Josephs will fly out on Tuesday morning and link up with the squad at their Johannesburg training camp.
More news from the Ajax Cape Town camp is that their Premier Soccer League (PSL) Castle Premiership match against Hellenic at Newlands has been rescheduled for Sunday June 6 at the same venue.
The match was originally scheduled for Friday June 4 but the PSL has ruled that all matches involving teams in the relegation zone should be played on the same day — Sunday June 6.
The four teams in the relegation zone are 16th-placed Zulu Royals on 22 points, 15th-placed Hellenic also on 22 points, 14th-placed Dynamos on 24 points and 13th-placed Manning Rangers on 26 points.
Sunday’s fixtures in involving these four relegation-threatened teams are (home teams first): Ajax Cape Town vs Hellenic, Dynamos vs Silver Stars, Manning Rangers vs Santos and SuperSport United vs Zulu Royals.
The national team call-up of Josephs will mean that Ajax will be even more sorely depleted at training sessions leading up to Sunday’s match. This week Ajax has already had five national team call-ups for World Cup qualifiers on the African continent.
The Democratic Republic of Congo have named four Congolese players from Ajax Cape Town — Dikilu Bageta, Cyrille Mubiala, Kanku Mulekelayi and Tshinyama Tshiolola — in their squad to take on Uganda in their qualifier on Saturday.
Ajax midfielder Ernest Mtawali has been called up for Malawi’s squad to face Morocco on Saturday in a qualifier in Blantyre.
Under PSL regulations teams fielding three or more players in any South African national team will have their fixtures postponed in the absence of the players. However, in this case the national teams are not South African and Ajax are obliged to play the fixture regardless of six national team call-ups at the same time.
All six players will race home after fixtures in Bloemfontein, Blantyre and Kampala on Saturday in an attempt to be in time for Sunday afternoon’s fixture at the Newlands Rugby Stadium (kick-off at 3pm). — Sapa