Bafana Bafana head coach Pitso Mosimane has addressed Oswin Appollis’ reduced playing minutes at Orlando Pirates this season, insisting it is not his job to manage club-level player fatigue.
Mosimane was speaking at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Thursday as Bafana gear up for a crucial 2027 AFCON qualifier against Kenya at the same venue on Friday. South Africa will host the Harambee Stars—coached by familiar face Benni McCarthy—looking to maintain their 100% winning record in the qualifiers after collecting maximum points in their opening two fixtures against Guinea and Eritrea.
Ahead of the clash, questions were raised regarding Appollis’ inclusion and readiness given his sharp drop in starting appearances at club level.
Despite registering an impressive five goal contributions—two goals and three assists—in 416 Betway Premiership minutes this term, the 2025/26 PSL Midfielder of the Season has gradually slipped out of Pirates head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou’s starting XI.
Having started eight of his opening nine appearances across all competitions between August and mid-September, the former SuperSport United winger has been named in the starting line-up just once in his last seven outings. In the Betway Premiership alone, Appollis has featured for 416 out of a possible 810 minutes—just over half—while across his last seven matches in all competitions since mid-September, he has managed only 240 out of 630 available minutes.
That shift has largely restricted him to cameo roles off the bench. This includes high-profile encounters against Mamelodi Sundowns in the MTN8 final, Kaizer Chiefs in the Soweto Derby, and Sekhukhune United in the Carling Knockout quarter-finals.
Ouaddou has recently cited fatigue as part of the reason the 25-year-old has not been starting regularly for the Sea Robbers. However, Mosimane made it clear that his selection criteria for the national team remain unaffected by outside noise or club rotation.
‘FATIGUE IS NOT FOR ME TO MANAGE’ – PITSO MOSIMANE ON OSWIN APPOLLIS’ PIRATES BENCH ROLE
“We play once, right? So fatigue is not for me to manage it. Right? For me, it’s to choose the best player who’s around and who’s available, okay?” Mosimane said.
“So I don’t over-train my team. I just say who’s available and is good for the country; I use that player. So, I hear that you are a lot in press conferences, but to be honest, I don’t listen.
“I have to look at what I have because now if I start listening to anybody and everybody, my decisions and my way of thinking will be swayed. If I read what you write, I’ll be in trouble, right? Because you can write what you want to write. I must respect your opinion.
“But if that opinion starts to go into my mind and it affects the choice of players I must make, I might not as well be here because you wrote your opinion. Right? So who do I listen to? Because another person has got his own [opinion about] other people that he thinks should be there. So who should I listen to? So then I’m the coach, right? And you [journalists] do the writing. And you must have the followers in your team.
“It’s a good question; there’s nothing wrong with it. You make your business, you make your money. My business is to win here. [But for you] is to increase numbers, then those are the right questions. And if you don’t ask that, I’m surprised. Then you’re not a journalist.”
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