Perhaps Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos had been spoilt for choice or had been tossing and turning at night as he concluded with the decision to leave Tapelo Xoki out of his Africa Cup of Nations squad.
In some fairness - and hindsight - to the Belgian mentor, the options presented were still of high quality and had been on the national-team radar before the tournament proper in Ivory Coast between January and February.
Also, had it not been for SAFA skimping on costs, the Orlando Pirates skipper would have been one of the additional four permitted by CAF to be included in the national team after the Covid pandemic created room for more players.
However, Xoki could only be on standby and never got to travel to the continental competition that ended with South Africa coming home with a bronze medal. That must have hurt.
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