Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis will wait until the last minute to see if captain Refiloe Jane will be able to face Italy in their final 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Group G match on Wednesday.
Banyana face Le Azzurre in a must-win encounter at the Wellington Regional Stadium in New Zealand at 9am (South African time).
Jane, who plays for Italian side US Sassuolo, was substituted after she got injured during Banyana’s 2-2 drawn match against Argentina on Friday last week.
“Refiloe has a soft tissue injury. We will wait until the very last minute before we make a final decision,” the 60-year-old Ellis said.
The Banyana coach has revealed that Jane has provided them with some valuable information about Le Azzurre as they have finalised their preparations for the match.
“She’s played in Italy for a while now. One of her teammates is training with the Italian team. Her information has been very, very helpful. We used a lot of that,” the Cape Town-born mentor remarked.
Meanwhile, Ellis has made it clear that she’s not that bothered by Jane and midfielder Kholosa Biyana’s absence from the Italy match as she believes that she’s got capable players who can do the job.
The 28-year-old hard-tackling Biyana from Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape is out suspended for the match.
“We’ve got a very multi-functional and versatile team, players that have played in those positions before. I think we played Australia, Refiloe wasn’t there, Kholosa wasn’t there. In other games as well where we used players in those positions,” Ellis said.
