South Africa women’s captain Janine van Wyk to return in Ghana friendly


South African women’s national team captain Janine van Wyk looks set to return to the starting 11 for the friendly match against Ghana on Sunday.

The match is scheduled to kick off at 15h00 at the  Dobsonville Stadium

The central defender, who has been out for almost three months due to a collateral knee ligament strain, missed the clash against Zimbabwe last month.

“It’s the first time I am training with the team again, and it feels really good to be back. I have been out for 13 weeks without playing football and doing rehabilitation. There are still a few areas I need to work on and get the injury out of my mind. But I am sure I will be ready in the next couple of days,” said van Wyk.

“I cannot wait to take the field against Ghana which I believe will be a much tougher opponent than Zimbabwe. They are more physical, but I think we can compete with them. The last time we faced the Black Queens, we were able to pip them through a penalty shootout and we are looking to do one better for the fans by defeating them within the allotted 90 minutes,” she concluded.

Sasol Banyana Banyana are preparing for the upcoming African Women’s championship qualifiers match against Comoros at the end of the month, and coach Vera Pauw is impressed with the team’s performance thus far. She believes that the match against Ghana will assist in building a strong team.

“Preparations are going well, we have only had three training sessions together. We had the first explosive training session yesterday, to gain more power and after that we had game time. I am impressed by what I saw,” said Pauw.

“We have reviewed the previous match against Zimbabwe and feel that we made it easy for them. It was not the individual mistakes that were a concern but the whole team lacked cohesion in the first 45 minutes. The match against Ghana could not have come at a better time as we look to intensify preparations ahead of the African Women’s Championship qualifiers against Comoros,” she added.

Defender Letago Madiba, who plies her trade for Tshwane University of Technology in the Sasol League remains the only injury scare for the team ahead of the match after sustaining a knee injury during today’s training session.

For more Ghana football news visit www.ghanasoccernet.com

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