Stuart Baxter threatens to report Strasbourg to Fifa over Lebo Mothiba's reported injury

With the Bafana Bafana camp hit by injuries ahead of their crucial 2019 Caf African Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya, coach Stuart Baxter is planning to take steps against French club Strasbourg FC.

The coach has expressed dissatisfaction after the French side sent an email on Sunday regarding striker Lebo Mothiba's unavailability due a hamstring injury.

"Let me just let you into the world of the South African national team coach," Baxter told the media on Monday.

"You select your squad and then you get the player before the game asking if he can come a day late; obviously some sort of pressure from his club,” added the English coach.

“We then have the game and the day of the game we get a very cryptic email from his club secretary saying he has a physical problem. We don't get any contact from the doctors, so we tried to contact the doctor,” he added.

"Last night (Sunday) later at 11:30 the doctor knocks on my door and says actually we got an email from them (Strasbourg) saying that he's going for the scan,” revealed the coach.

“The doctor, now when we landed in Durban, gets another email saying that he has a grade two hamstring tear, which is not going to be healed within 10 to 15 days,” he explained.

"So, I say to the doctor, given the way this has gone down, I want a picture. I want a scan, an actual scan that you can look at and you can say to me 'Coach, this is not so bad, bring him here we'll assess him', or 'coach forget about this one, you need to call someone up',” said the Bafana coach.

"Until we have that scan, I think the way this has gone down has been totally amateurish and therefore I'm going to make a decision whether I recommend to take them to Fifa to report them for disrupting our camp,” he continued.

“Or we'll look at the scan and say it's not worth it and let's just get on with our life and bring someone else in," concluded he coach.

Meawhile, Baxter has replaced Mothiba with Bidvest Wits attacker Mxolisi Macuphu. 

The lanky forward reported for camp on Tuesday, becoming Baxter's fourth replacement. 

Moreover, Bafana will be without midfielders Themba Zwane, Hlompho Kekana and Bongani Zungu who are ruled out due to injuries.

Tiyani Mabunda, Aubrey Modiba and Vincent Pule have since been roped in to fill the gaps left by the tree injured players.