Bafana Bafana midfielder Sphephelo Sithole admits he’s grateful to be back in the national team as he feared his horrific injury would be the end of his career.
The 26-year-old suffered a fracture to his tibia and fibula, in a horror injury against South Sudan a year ago, in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers which ended his season and limited his loan spell with Gil Vicente to just 51 minutes of league action for the entire campaign.
He returned to parent club Tondela, who won promotion back to the top-flight and has enjoyed a steady return to fitness and completed 90 minutes in each of his last two games, and netting his first goal of the season.
“I would like to thank God for giving me the opportunity to play football again, because that injury I got, I thought maybe it was the end of my career, but fortunately I’m here again, back with the team,” Sithole told SAFA Media.
“It’s good to be back in the team, I can see the spirit is very good and the guys were doing good while I was away, and I was always watching them playing, so I’m proud to be back here with the team again.”
Having missed close to 10 months of football, it was a challenging period, physically and mentally for the KZN Academy graduate, that has spent nine years in Portugal since he first left to join Sporting Lisbon in 2017.
He’s since represented Vitoria FC, Belenenses and now Tondela, while emerging as a key figure in the senior national team set-up under current head coach Hugo Broos, with 20 caps to his name.
“It was tough mentally, because when you’re injured you can’t do much – you can’t help with anything, all you can do is to support the guys, and be with them,” he added on his extended absence over the last three international breaks.
“The only thing you can do is communicate with them on Whatsapp messages, that’s what I did. I supported them while I was away from home – I’m just happy they did well.”
Sithole will be aiming to return to his midfield partnership with Teboho Mokoena on Friday when South Africa take on Zimbabwe at Moses Mabhida Stadium – in a must-win 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifier.