CONTROVERSY: SA’s Thulani Serero appears to have been brought down by Nicolas Nkoulou in the penalty box late in Saturday’s match, but the referee failed to award Bafana the penalty. Picture: SYDNEY MAHLANGU/BACKPAGEPIX

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BAFANA Bafana will be without either of their stalwart fullbacks, Anele Ngcongca and Thabo Matlaba, in their must-win Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifier against Cameroon at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Tuesday.

Already, SA’s chances of reaching the Afcon finals in Gabon next year hang by a thread.

Ordinarily, a 2-2 draw in Cameroon would be considered a fine result. However, given that Bafana started with a 0-0 home draw against Gambia, then a 3-1 away defeat to Mauritania, they now need to win their three remaining games and hope for Cameroon to lose all of theirs, to stand an improbable chance of winning the group.

Or, perhaps more realistically, but still a long shot, SA need maximum points to add to their current two to try to make their way up the standings of best group runners-up, the best two of which will qualify for Afcon.

Team doctor Thulani Ngwenya said left-back Matlaba will miss the match as he is feeling dizziness from the mild concussion he sustained from a clash of heads in Limbe on Saturday.

Ngcongca had to go off and was replaced by Rivaldo Coetzee at right-back in the 45th minute. He suffered a calf strain and will not recover for tonight’s match.

Midfielder Mpho Makola pulled up with a quad muscle injury later yesterday and is also unavailable.

Coetzee and Mamelodi Sundowns’ uncapped Asavela Mbekile are coach Shakes Mashaba’s options at right-back. On the left, the choice is between Wits’ Sifiso Hlanti and Cheslyn Jampies of Jomo Cosmos, neither of whom have been capped.

Bafana captain and goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune said the loss of the team’s two frontline fullbacks is clearly a blow.

"We’ll definitely miss their experience because that’s the back four that has been playing constantly. But again, we’ve got the experienced Rivaldo Coetzee, who’s been partnering Tower (Mathoho) in central defence.

"He did fairly well at right-back. On the left, it’s the coach’s job to choose between Hlanti and Jampies. They’ve been working very hard at training. If one of them gets to start the match, they will definitely do well too."

Darren Keet has a stomach bug and Jackson Mabokgwane will be Khune’s back-up keeper.

Khune said Bafana needed to improve on protecting a lead, a weak point that also cost the team when they were up 1-0 three times at last year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals tournament in Equatorial Guinea against Algeria, Senegal and Ghana — eventually losing to all three.

On Saturday, SA took the lead twice, through Tokelo Rantie in the 17th minute and then Hlompo Kekana’s world-class strike from inside his own half in the 50th.

Sebastien Siani, in first-half injury time, and Nicolas Nkoulou in the 66th minute, equalised softly for Cameroon. Bafana had what seemed a clear penalty turned down when Thulani Serero was brought down in the area in second-half injury time.

"We fought. We played well, we played attacking football. Hence we got the two goals away from home," Khune said.

"But we let ourselves down because every time we got a lead, we gave it away. And it’s something we need to improve on tomorrow night," he said.

"I don’t blame the fans for being so hard on us when we don’t get the results. But, we will keep on pushing hard, playing well, and going forward will complement our good, flowing football with results."

Ngwenya said he believed the team will have recovered from playing in 36°C to 38°C in Cameroon. The visitors’ star striker Vincent Aboubakar of FC Porto is back from suspension.