South Africa’s only training session ahead of their international friendly against Zimbabwe on Tuesday night was cancelled after the floodlights went out at Rufaro Stadium in Harare.
The South African Football Association (Safa) said the lights had gone out during the squad’s warm-up routine on Monday night.
“Efforts by stadium management to get the lights back on failed as Bafana Bafana finished off their warm-up session and waited patiently on the sidelines,” Safa said in a statement.
“The lights came back on briefly, only to go out again after a few seconds.”
Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane spoke to stadium officials but the session was called off without the players kicking a ball.
It would have been the squad’s only chance to test the artificial surface ahead of the match — their second in three days after playing to a 1-1 draw against Côte d’Ivoire at the weekend.
Exposure
Safa said the lights had come back on as the players were getting into the bus, but it was not clear how long it lasted.
“It is unfortunate that we could not train ahead of our match,” Mosimane said.
“Our players last trained before the clash against Côte d’Ivoire in Port Elizabeth … We also have a new group that has not played together in the national team … This has really hampered our preparations and we will have to sort everything out at the match, but we will soldier on.”
Safa said the Zimbabwe Football Association had apologised, and the visiting delegation accepted.
Mosimane, meanwhile, named defender Morgan Gould as the captain for the game — Bafana’s last of the year — after regular skipper Steven Pienaar was left out of the young touring outfit.
“Coming here with a young team is just to give them exposure and a taste of international football,” Gould said.
“We want them to see how tough it’s going to be as this is one of the tests they have to undergo at a higher level, but we are confident we will do well.” — Sapa