It was a welcome sight seeing Monnapule Saleng on the wing in the African Nation Championship qualifier (CHAN) last Sunday.
The 26-year-old hasn’t featured in a professional game since early December amid salary demands that Orlando Pirates are unwilling to match.
Bloemhof’s boy was back to his old tricks against Egypt but was unable to help his side collect all three points. The match ended 1-1 at the Free State Stadium. Bafana Bafana heads to Egypt on Sunday for the second leg.
Saleng is one of four players who won’t be on the plane this weekend—Naledi Hlongwan, Azola Tshobeni, and Nduduzo Mhlongo are the other casualties.
Four released players
For coach Molefi Mtseki, the CHAN qualifiers pose as the perfect moment to test South Africa’s budding talent, saying, “So, what we did when we got to camp, we did a squad rofile to see who is playing and who is better in which positions in terms of our approach,
“With us doing that, we also worked on the structure. We realised that after the game in Bloemfontein, there are certain positions that we needed to reinforce, especially with us having to go and play Egypt in Egypt,
“So, we have released a few of our players that came to camp last week. We have brought in a few of the players in terms of the squad balance. We had to thank them by releasing these players back to their clubs.”
The future of Monnapule Saleng remains vague with an offseason move appearing ever more likely as each week of unsuccessful talks mount.
Where should Saleng go?
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