Bafana Bafana head coach Ephraim “Shakes” Mashaba has called up Platinum Stars defender Isaac Nhlapo to replace the injured Ajax Cape Town centre-back Rivaldo Coetzee ahead of the team’s departure for Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso tomorrow. Bafana start their 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign’s third and final round this weekend in Group D. Bafana team medico Dr. Thulani Ngwenya has been doing the assessment and has more. Mashaba has been criticised in the past on the continuous omission of Komohelo Mokotjo of F.C Twente in Holland, Kermit Erasmus of Rennes in France and a host of other deserving players that haven’t been called-up. However, the 66 year old mentor justifies his selection criteria and says that he is happy with his 25-man squad. One of the short comings of the Bafana technical team was not to thoroughly plan for their opponents in the recent African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign by using the modern trends of analysis. Consequently, this led to Bafana’s embarrassing 3-1 loss at lowly placed minnows Mauritania who also held them 1-1 at home. Mashaba says they have learnt their lesson. Mashaba expects a tough encounter against Burkina Faso on Saturday as “The Stallions” have qualified as group winners for AFCON 2017 and have an impressive home record having won all their home games during the qualifiers.