South Africa boss explains why Burnley's Lyle Foster is back in his squad following public fallout

The striker was included in Broos’ preliminary 36-man squad earlier this month, despite not having represented his country since October of last year.

It followed a public fallout with Broos and the country’s FA after Foster ruled himself out of contention for the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in January.

At the time, the 23-year-old was receiving specialist care for his mental health having taken an eight-week break from football.

Despite returning for the Clarets in mid-December, a few weeks before AFCON was due to start, Foster ruled he wasn’t ready to feature with doctors advising he needed to remain in familiar surroundings.

Broos and the South African FA were left frustrated with the situation, with it even being reported that the country’s FA were considering launching an investigation.

But South Africa’s head coach has confirmed the issue has now been resolved.

“His health problem is solved, that was his problem,” he told SABC Sport.

“I know I was very angry at a certain moment because from England, we got the news that Lyle was not ready and Lyle had a mental problem and so on, but suddenly he starts playing with the team.

“We had contact again with England and they said ‘yes, but he’s not ready’ and Lyle also wrote a letter saying he didn’t want to go to AFCON because he was not ready. That’s the reason why Lyle was not with us in the Ivory Coast.

“After that, in March, I contacted Burnley and again they told me no. They said ‘it’s better you don’t call at the moment because he’s not really 100 per cent’ and that’s why he was not with us in March.

“But he still played, he always played every game for Burnley, so it was not easy to accept that.

“Okay, I followed the medical reasons why I couldn’t take him, but now everything is okay. I called him and we had a good chat.”

South Africa face Nigeria away from home on Friday, June 7 before hosting Zimbabwe in Bloemfontein on Tuesday, June 11.