Despite winger/attacking midfielder Thembinkosi Lorch's revival at Wydad Casablanca, he remains out of Hugo Broos' Bafana Bafana squad, much to the chagrin of a vocal section of South Africa supporters.
Calls for his inclusion grew louder as it became clear Mamelodi Sundowns' Themba Zwane was battling with repeated injury problems that would eventually keep him out of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco (December 21 - January 18).
Lorch and Zwane were previously teammates at Mamelodi Sundowns, with whom 'Nyoso' had a brief spell after joining from Orlando Pirates, where he spent the bulk of his peak years.
The no.10 role behind the striker -- likely to be Lyle Foster for most matches -- has become a topic of debate due to Broos' limited options. The Belgian has recently utilised Pirates' Sipho Mbule there, bringing him back into the team after a period out of the fold and pushing him slightly forward from the middle of the park.
This is one role that Lorch could have been used in had Broos decided to include him.
Is Broos really short of no.10 options?
It is worth remembering that many of Bafana Bafana's best attacking players are wingers, and Broos is going to have to find a way to get the best out of a group featuring Oswin Appollis, Mohau Nkota, Relebohile Mofokeng, Tshepang Moremi, Elias Mokwana and Shandre Campbell.
Few if any of these players will be content with sitting on the bench and making up the numbers. Therefore, Broos is going to have to be innovative in his use of the group in order to keep morale high.
He is likely to deploy a player into pockets of space upfront to link the midfield with Foster. However, Broos no longer has to rely only on Mbule for this role, with Mofokeng fit and firing again for Pirates.
At club level, Mofokeng has often been utilised as a no.10 this season by Abdeslam Ouaddou, who himself has had to find space in his team for Mbule and an abundance of wingers, including Moremi and Appollis.
Mofokeng, who has been linked with a host of clubs ranging from Minnesota United to Barcelona over the last two years, is probably Bafana Bafana's most dazzling creative player.
Mbule -- known affectionately as 'Master Chef' -- may feel he has a shout. Nkota has improved in leaps and bounds since his move from Pirates to Saudi Arabia's Al-Ettifaq and is arguably stronger in some areas than Mofokeng. Adept as a playmaker, Nkota can also track back tenaciously and finish clinically in addition to making shrewd passes in the final third.
However, as a pure playmaker, Mofokeng regularly produces a type of magic his former Pirates teammate has yet to master to quite the same extent. This means that of the wingers selected by Broos, Mofokeng is the one most suited to rivalling Mbule for the spot in behind the striker.
The fact that he now has Mofokeng at his disposal again means Broos is richer in options than he was two months ago, when calls for Lorch's inclusion grew louder.
Mofokeng was injured in Orlando Pirates' August MTN8 semi-final win over Mamelodi Sundowns and his early season form was not on par with what he produced in 2024-25. Broos has attributed that to the effects of speculation over his future.
However, it was clear in Orlando Pirates' 1-0 Carling Knockout Cup win over Marumo Gallants, a game which saw Mofokeng score the winner, that the 21-year-old is back to himself. Broos is thus more justified than he would have been before in saying that Lorch would not add to his team.
This is still a controversial opinion, because Lorch's form for Wydad has been phenomenal. Notably, he delivered superb performances at the FIFA Club World Cup with the eyes of the world upon him and scored in the 4-1 loss to Juventus.
He has followed that up with four goals in seven Botola Pro appearances for Wydad so far this season.
His revival is a sign that a dark period of his career may finally have come to an end. It could not have helped Lorch that his signing at Sundowns was reportedly among the main causes of a rift between the coach who signed him, Rhulani Mokwena, and sporting director Flemming Berg.
Ultimately, that rift is likely the key reason why Miguel Cardoso currently presides over Sundowns as head coach, while Mokwena moved on initially to Wydad (where he signed Lorch again) and then MC Alger, where he is currently in charge.
Wydad is not free of politics and scrutiny, but Lorch appears to be benefitting from not being front and centre of it and thus being free to focus on his football.
However, had Broos included him in his Bafana Bafana squad, that may not have been the case.
Would Lorch's inclusion have sparked backlash?
Now 32, Lorch has not played for his country since 2022. There are several reasons why selecting him now would be more controversial than it was then.
Crucially, Lorch was convicted in 2023 of assaulting his ex-girlfriend three years prior, with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
He was handed a three-year prison sentence, suspended for five years on condition that he did not reoffend during this period, and ordered to pay a R100,000 fine to People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA).
There is no reason to believe that this played a role in Broos overlooking him. It is impossible to know precisely what the 73-year-old coach is thinking, but the straight-talking Belgian has always insisted that Lorch's continued omission has been for football reasons.
He could not have known this at the time he selected his squad, but he probably mitigated an already serious public relations crisis of his own making by leaving Lorch out of his squad.
On Thursday, it was revealed that political party the United Democratic Movement (UDM) had reported Broos to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) over Wednesday comments on centre-back Mbekezeli Mbokazi and his agent, Basia Michaels which they deemed to have been "racially coded" and "sexist".
Broos' controversial words on Michaels over Mbokazi's move to Chicago Fire were particularly ill-timed, given recent nationwide gender-based violence protests in the build-up to November's G20 summit in Johannesburg.
SAFA were always going to be unlikely to publicly rebuke their most successful head coach of the millennium within the last two weeks before their AFCON. However, their defence of him may have been more difficult to uphold against scrutiny had he selected Lorch in his team.
Lorch remains one of South Africa's most popular players. However, the football industry's decision to mostly overlook his past transgressions has not gone unchallenged.
The Daily Maverick's Yanga Sibembe wrote at the time of Lorch's omission from the AFCON squad that selecting him would have undone Broos' good work of changing the image of the team. That was before the outcry over the Belgian's comments on Mbokazi and Michaels, which would likely have gathered even more momentum had Lorch been in the squad.
It is true that Lorch apologised for his actions and committed to making amends to his victim. However, his career has not been significantly affected by the conviction.
Orlando Pirates, his employer at the time, announced they had fined him, suspended him for three weeks and put him in anger management therapy before welcoming him back to the team. There may have been ramifications of his suspended sentence behind the scenes, but there is no public record of further repercussions at Pirates or subsequent employers Sundowns or Wydad.
As a representative of his country on the international stage, Lorch likely would have faced far greater public scrutiny for his past actions than he has at club level. This would have been a headache that he, Broos and SAFA are all probably better off for avoiding -- whether it was avoided intentionally or otherwise.
Broos has generally preferred young players throughout his tenure, eventually making a notable exception for Zwane after initially being reluctant. Senior players Ronwen Williams, Teboho Mokoena and Khuliso Mudau are vital in his team, but they have been in favour for almost all of his tenure and are thus likely to be viewed as valuable beyond their footballing ability for enforcing the culture Broos has created.
Lorch's finest moment in Bafana Bafana colours came at AFCON 2019, when he scored the winner in a 1-0 round of 16 upset of hosts Egypt.
Despite the contingent of fans who were hoping for a repeat, Broos probably made the best call on balance to trust younger players to turn over a new leaf and create fresh history.