The situation surrounding the participation of Warriors forward, Khama Billiat, in their opening Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against Liberia on Sunday has become embrangled.
The 26-year-old may not feature for the Warriors on Sunday with the reigning African champions Mamelodi Sundows increasingly unlikely to release the forward.
The inclusion of Billiat, who is coming from an ankle injury, has become subject to obscurity with the national soccer team’s interim team manager, Wellington Mpandare, expressing uncertainty over his availability for the Liberian encounter.
“Khama is not coming. But we are still hoping that the situation will change and we have begun communicating with CAF.
“It’s a bit complicated,” he told Soccer24.
Mpandari said he had, prior to the weekend, spoken to former Warriors striker and Mamelodi Sundowns team manager, Peter Ndlovu, who had initially hinted that Billiat would be available if his flight tickets were made available.
“We sent him several tickets to join the camp. We sent him a ticket to come on Sunday, then Peter said we needed to send Billiat a return ticket otherwise he wouldn’t be able to come. ‘We sent him the return ticket, and he still hasn’t made it.
“I have spoken to him (Billiat), he wants to come but said he doesn’t know what is happening and that I should talk to Peter,” he said.
Reports this morning claimed that Mamelodi Sundowns coach, Pitso Mosimane, had made a U-turn on the decision to let Billiat leave for the AFCON qualifier following their recent defeat to Esperance of Tunisia in the CAF champions league late last week.
The reigning African champions are desperate for a win when they play their next champions league match and Billiat is reportedly now earmarked to play a key role in turning around their fortunes of in the African Safari.
“Mamelodi Sundowns haven’t officially communicated with us. They cannot fear that his injury would be aggravated without us having assessed him first. From the look of things they want to rest him for their next champions league game.
“It’s not good for our relations with Sundowns. The funny thing is that the Liberian captain also plays for Sundowns and they have already released him for the AFCON qualifiers. It’s Khama whom they don’t want to release,” he said.