A lot can happen in one year… and no one knows that more than forward Thembi Kgatlana.
In July last year in Morocco at the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, she suffered an injury that many thought would keep her out of the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup to be staged in Australia and New Zealand.
But Kgatlana also knew that everything was in her hands – so what followed was hard work, sheer determination and dedication to get back to the game she loves.
Other than the World Cup, the other driving force was that a few days before her injury she had just signed for Racing Louisville in the USA – and the team took her in to help continue with rehabilitation before unleashing her in the NWSL.
“I’m very excited to get a chance to go to the World Cup, a very difficult injury but I think with my mentality, my grit, and the ability to work very hard, I was able to overcome all the timelines that the doctors thought I would come back, and obviously with the help of Louisville and my national team to make sure that I get proper surgery, proper treatment, and proper rehabilitation, I think that also allowed me to come back even earlier than thought,” she told her club’s Media Department before joining the Banyana Banyana training camp.
Kgatlana has made 10 appearances for her new employers, scoring one goal in the process.
The one year wait to don the national team jersey finally came to an end in Christchurch, New Zealand on Saturday, 15 July when she was named in the starting line-up to face Costa Rica in an international friendly to prepare for the World Cup.
The Randfontein-born player needed just 32 minutes to make her mark – grabbing her 25th goal for her country as she earned her 69th cap.
“It was amazing to score. Coming back after a year feels great and to have also played more than 70 minutes. As a striker I always want to score and that’s something that I’ve been practicing when I was at my club Racing (Louisville). And it was amazing to see how I connected with my teammates after coming back from my injury,” said Kgatlana on the SAFA website.
South Korea-based fellow striker Hilda Magaia increased the advantage in the second half to South Africa a confidence-boosting 2-0 win before the start of the tournament.
“We needed this game because we’re going into the World Cup in less than a week and to have played this match, I think will boost us. Also we have a lot of things that we still need to tweak and I think we did a really great job today – first a clean sheet overall for Kaylin (Swart) and for the rest of the team because we didn’t concede and also to see how we controlled the match from the start, what we wanted, the tempo, when to attack, when not to attack, when to push them to one side and steal the ball. I mean that’s all of the things that we’ve been practicing, and I think the coaches should be happy with the performance because I think the players are also happy with what we did today,” added Kgatlana.
She eventually made way late in the second half and her place was taken by Noxolo Cesane – but the coaches were impressed following her long-awaited return.
“I thought with a performance like today, having been out for so long as if she never left, and getting a goal will give her and the team a lot of confidence. And she took the goal well – she was instrumental in a lot of our moves not only in attacking, but also when she needed to press the opponents, she was initiating that as well. So, for that I’m really happy to give her some minutes,” said Banyana Banyana head coach Desiree Ellis.
With the Costa Rica clash out of the way, Kgatlana and company will shift their focus this upcoming week to fine-tuning their final preparations as the third world-ranked and 2003 World Cup runners-up Sweden lies in wait for the African Champions on Sunday, 23 July.
By Matlhomola Morake
