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Bafana Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba wants to make peace with midfielder Kamohelo Mokotjo.
The coach said that despite the FC Twente midfielder announcing his temporary retirement from the national team, he was still very much part of the team.
The 25-year-old said he would not honour call-ups in the near future as long as Mashaba was still at the helm.
Mokotjo was aggrieved by being sidelined in the recent Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Cameroon.
Speaking for the first time since Mokotjo turned his back on the team, Mashaba said the door was still open for the player to come back when he felt ready.
Mashaba said he was willing to be part of the efforts to get the two together.
He said he was hurt by how Mokotjo voiced his unhappiness about his non-selection on social media.
Mashaba said: “Imagine you are sitting with the person here and the next thing you read that this is what he says about you. I’m disappointed because I was with him. I hope one day we will sit down and talk about what it is that made him angry to such an extent that he said he would not play as long as I am the coach. I bear no grudges against him.
“What hurt me most is that it has been made a personal issue between me and the player. It’s not like I don’t like him or want him. If I may highlight it, Mokotjo went through my hands when he was still in the Under-12s when I was the manager of that team.
I have just come back in the team, and what would have changed since then within such a short period of time. Why would I hate him? For what good reason?”
The coach also said he had a good working relationship with all the players, adding that he was surprised by the reported “mutiny” in the camp.
“It’s unfortunate that those [unhappy] players remain anonymous, because it would have been much easier had they said, I, so and so, have issues, so that we address them man to man. That is always the way things are done in football.
You don’t complain in corners or your space – you confront the problems and the authority, so that we solve the matter man to man.
“There are no reprisals or grudges in this game.”
