SuperSport’s Ditlhokwe makes Botswana’s 2023 Afcon party

SuperSport United defender Thatayaone Ditlohokwe is the only player from the DStv Premiership named in Botswana’s squad for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. The Zebras caretaker coach Mogomotsi Mpote has released his final 23-man squad for the Group J matches away to Libya and at home to Tunisia.

Other notable players in the squad are strikers Thabang Sesinyi and Thatayaone Kgamanynane. The Zebras will go into camp on 24 May before travelling to South Africa for practice matches ahead of the trip to Libya. The group’s other members are Tunisia and Equatorial Guinea.

Speaking after the draw recently, Mpote said the Zebras are in the AFCON qualifiers to compete and not make numbers. “We will leave no stone unturned. We have a dynamic team at the moment. The boys I called into the last international window are determined,” he told the Botswana Football Association website.

“As a group, we need to work together for each other. We are not going to make the numbers, and we will impose ourselves and forget African football hierarchy if ever there was such.’’ The 2023 Afcon qualifiers will start in June 2022, and Botswana should be looking forward to their second-ever Afcon qualification.