Thapelo Morena determined to move on from AFCON World Cup heartbreak

A key member of the team during the Hugo Broos era, the 33-year-old suffered injuries in the build-up to the two tournaments in Morocco and the Americas respectively, ruling him out.

Speaking ahead of Sundowns’ FIFA Continental Cup clash against Al-Ahli Saudi on Saturday afternoon, Morena says he is taking a different approach this time, determined to focus on what he can control.

"I think the big thing that I've learnt and took from it was accepting what happened and focusing on the future because you don't know what the future holds for you. Trying to do things a bit different mostly in the gym and all that,” Morena said. 

“Trying to see what went wrong and what can I fix in terms of situations that I have. Some of the situations that I have. Some of the situations were not hamstring injuries, it was the one now when we went to the World Cup. It was a bad one but it's something that I accepted and let go to focus on the future."

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He also reacted to being selected by new Bafana mentor Pitso Mosimane for the upcoming Afcon qualifiers against Guinea and Eritrea this month. 

"It's a great feeling seeing my name on the list yesterday. I think it's one of those things when a soccer player plays football seeing his name in the national team squad besides you've been there but knowing there's changes and there were a lot of things, also injuries but also being back in the squad it's one of the best things to be," he added.