Bafana’s Sithole grateful for second chance

THE refrain “I thank God” has been uttered so may times before by footballers — and sports stars in general — that you wonder when it's really heartfelt or just another cliché.

- MATSHELANE MAMABOLO

Yet, when Sphephelo Sithole said it, you knew he was not just regurgitating a phrase he had picked up from watching post-match interviews.

This was a man truly grateful for his faith; a man thankful for a second chance; a man aware that it could well have ended a year ago.

Back in the Bafana Bafana squad for the first time since he was stretchered off the pitch in South Sudan in September 2024, the man fondly referred to as Yaya could understandably not hide his delight.

“I thank God for the opportunity he has given me to play football again because with the injury I got, I thought it was the end of my career,” the 26-year-old said.

It was that serious an injury, the man from Ulundi having fractured his tibia and fibula.

Because of that, he has been watching Bafana from a distance as they clinched a spot at the Africa Cup of Nations finals set for Morocco and inch ever so closer to the country’s first qualification for the Fifa World Cup in 24 years.