Bafana Bafana will have a sports psychologist in camp for their World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso at FNB Stadium on October 7‚ South African Football Association (Safa) CEO Dennis Mumble said. The psychologist would work on the players’ mental toughness after away and home 2-1 defeats against Cape Verde that left Bafana’s Russia 2018 ambitions almost in tatters, he said. SA can restore a faint chance of qualification with victory against 49th-ranked Burkina Faso. Coach Stuart Baxter identified the mental aspect of his Bafana players as being the key to the Cape Verde defeats. His argument appeared to be strengthened by now confirmed reports that at least four players partied hard in the team hotel in Durban after the second defeat on September 5. Mumble said Safa will look at employing sports psychologists to tackle this aspect. "We have to work on the mind-set of the players. What is it that we cannot get our players to raise the psychological preparedness for these kinds of...
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