Banyana Banyana has been dealt a huge blow in their quest for a first Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title after striker Thembi Kgatlana was ruled out of the tournament with an injury.
The reigning Africa Player of the Year, who was the highest goal scorer at the 2018 edition with five goals, sustained a complete rupture of the left achilles tendon in South Africa’s last Group C game against Botswana on Sunday night at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca, according to the Banyana Banyana Doctor Rodney Mokoka.
Mokoka explained that, “Thembi suffered a complete rupture of her left achilles tendon as confirmed by the MRI scan this morning. Unfortunately, she will be out for the whole WAFCON 2022 tournament. She is due to undergo an operation back in South Africa.”
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“Healing will be guided by certain milestones that we have to achieve. Of course a comprehensive rehabilitation program will be in place for her, but the quicker we achieve those milestones the sooner she will be back on the field of play. She will start jogging in about 12-16 weeks, which is roughly three months, return to non-sport after 16-21 weeks and return to contact sport 20-24 weeks from now,” said Mokoka.
The 26-year old Kgatlana, who just signed for Racing Louisville in the NWSL, USA, opened her goalscoring account at WAFCON 2022 with a goal against Burundi in their second group game and has been key to their attack, running rings around defenders and troubling goalkeepers.
Kgatlana is the second major player to be ruled out of the WAFCON, after record four-time African Player of the Year Asisat Oshoala of Nigeria suffered a Grade 2 Medial Collateral Ligament strain in their opener against South Africa a week ago. She has since left for surgery in Spain.
South Africa face Tunisia in their quarterfinal game on Thursday in Rabat.
10 Comments
Reigning africa play of the year in your dreams… What time did she dethrone OSHOALA… Stop giving yourselves false hopes… Team 9JA will still produce Africa female footballer of the year again in a matter of weeks… “Oshoala” all the way… She remains the best in AFRICA… The stats are there for all to see…
No excuse SA you miss one key player we miss one key player too. See you in the final. I wish the young woman and our own Oshoala quick recovery..
Who told you that Nigeria would be in the final? With the way out team are playing, if we meet another team who are more technical sound and have intelligent coaching crew, our aged Falcons will crumbled especially at the defence and midfield
I don’t know why the NFF are spending so much money on foreign coach who are bringing our senior female team backward. I am not being pessimistic but factual I wish the team the best but it will take miracle or divine providence for this our team in this tournament to lift this cup.
This is very unfortunate for SA and the tournament as a whole. She’s quite a player too. That makes 3 star players in both the Wafcon and Euros that will be missing a major portion of their various tournaments due to injury. First it was Putella for Spain (the reigning balon d’or winner), Oshoala and now Kgtalana who is the reigning African player of the year.
Tournaments need their biggest stars but the beat must go on
Very good I love this. This is called nemesis. Yea, nemesis caught up on you guys. You deliberately wounded our OSHOALA because you were desperate to defeat us. Tunisia will bundle you out of the competition.
What goes around comes around. That thing called karma is a real b**ch.
Their tournament may be over without Kgatlana. If they survive Tunisia they won’t survive Morocco or Zambia. It might be a Nigeria vs Morocco final. Unless we meet them in the semis.
Kgatlana gives SA an edge, but they are still a strong side without her. Wish her, Oshoala and other injured players a speedy recovery.
BTW, Morocco will be hard to beat in this competition. They have a good team, but more importantly, the referee decisions have been going their way in a manner that arouses suspicion!
It seems the Moroccans are bent on snagging this trophy on their home turf, and will do everything, legal or illegal, to realize their ambitions.
To get past Morocco, you have to be prepared to beat the 11 players competing against you, the vociferous home crowd, and possibly the referees.
Ya I totally agree their second match against Uganda the red card was questionable, flailing arms do not warrant red cards only deliberate elbows do and baffles me was how it was not a clear and obvious error and VAR called her(the ref) to check and her interpretation was also wrong and don’t get me started on the Senegal penalty even England last night got a controversial penalty,all I know is its high time refereeing integrity is being checked and the footballing bodies should take action on irresponsible refereeing and not waste time promoting fake messages.
Codex, you’re right. Nothing ruins a football match more than questionable officiating.