<\/p>\n
Likuena goalkeeper Likano Mphuthi is delighted to be back in the picture for the national team after a long spell out on the side-lines with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
Mphuthi has been named in the Leslie Not\u0161i\u2019s Likuena squad to face Ethiopia in back-to-back 2022 World Cup preliminary qualifiers.<\/p>\n
The 29-year old, who plays his club football for LDF, admitted that he has to dig deep to reclaim his place as Likuena first choice goalkeeper having missed a lot of football since undergoing\u00a0 knee surgery in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel that I have a big challenge ahead of me to get back to the level where I was before the injury setback,\u201d Mphuthi told the LeFA Media.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long journey back to full fitness and the team has also been doing well in my absence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mphuthi, who helped Likuena clinch bronze medal at the 2018 edition of the COSAFA Cup, has also praised his competitor in Bantu\u2019s Thabiso Lichaba, who has since become the national team first choice goalkeeper after Sam Ketsekile hanged his gloves.<\/p>\n
\u201cCompetition is always good in football and it is a motivation for me to go and extra mile to get my place back in the national team starting line-up,\u201d the LDF goalkeeper said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that the other goalkeepers have done well in my absence, but I\u2019m happy to be back in action and playing football again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have continued to support the team even when I was injured and was able to travel to Dobsonville to watch the African Nations Championship (CHAN) match against South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a good feeling seeing the team getting a very good win against Bafana Bafana and I hope we can maintain those standards going forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Likuena goalkeeper Likano Mphuthi is delighted to be back in the picture for the national team after a long spell out on the side-lines with a knee injury. Mphuthi has been named in the Leslie Not\u0161i\u2019s Likuena squad to face Ethiopia in back-to-back 2022 World Cup preliminary qualifiers. The 29-year old, who plays his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1666,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n