Carlos Alberto Parreira claims fitness issues could hamper South Africa’s chances of success in the summer’s World Cup (South Africa 6/1 to win Group A).
The Brazilian manager has named a 29-man preliminary squad for the hosts, which includes 19 South African-based players and ten overseas members.
South Africa are seen as outsiders for the competition despite having the support of fanatical home support and have to face Mexico, Uruguay and France in the group stage.
Parreira is set to reduce his squad to 23 players before South Africa open the tournament with against Mexico on June 11th (South Africa 15/8 to win, Mexico 6/5. 11/5 draw on match bets)
He claims integrating local players with those who play in top leagues across Europe could be a real problem as they prepare for the World Cup as the ranging physical conditions could make things “rather difficult”.
“Some of them have played too many games – like Steven Pienaar who has played 27 games since November, some have played half of what Pienaar played while others started in one or two,” said Parreira.
“So they will come here in different fitness levels, which will give our physical trainer a lot of headaches to put them in good shape for the competition.”
The South Africans recently embarked on a training camp in Brazil and Germany, where Parreira named a predominantly home-based squad with only two overseas players.
These players managed only a 1-1 draw against world minnows Namibia and Bafana Bafana fans will be hoping for an improvement in performances when their side play World Cup warm-up games against Argentina and Denmark.
South Africa’s Group A rivals France (16/1 – World Cup Outright) were recently urged to leave their egos at home when they leave to join the World Cup squad by Raymond Domenech.
The French coach saw his side only scrape their way into the World Cup after a controversial win over Ireland in the play-offs.
He told French newspaper L’Equipe that his squad need to realise that “the only thing that matters is the team, not them” and he is expecting a struggle when he names his 23-man squad for the World Cup on May 11th.
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