BANYANA: Hildah Magaia expected to be fit for key Thursday game

The influential Magaia, who scored the opening goal of South Africa’s 2-1 loss to Sweden, injured herself in the process of scoring, but coach Desiree Ellis says she expects her star to be good to go in time for Thursday key game.

“As she went in to put the ball over the line, she fell with her knee and hand on the back part of the goalpost,” said Ellis.

“Her coming off was a bit tough but we have a good squad. Unfortunately, she couldn’t continue — it was also her debut goal at the World Cup. But she should be fine for the next game.”

Magaia, who also bagged a brace for Banyana when they won the African Cup of Nations is a key player for the side. But a major talking point before the game was the replacement of another key player from the side that won the Afcon with Andile Dlamini being replaced in goal by Kaylin Swart.

“We knew that if we were in trouble Kaylin could kick us out of trouble, which she did on many occasions,” confirmed the wily Ellis.

“We’ve been training with those changes for a long time just to make sure everybody understood the gameplan.

“We also knew who would come on if the right-back went off, or the attacking midfielder went off — we had cover in all positions.

“If we needed to change the system, we had that on the bench too — we had a plan A, B and C,” she said.