No Tau, but Mayo returns: Broos makes wholesale changes for ...

Khanyisa Mayo. (Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images)

Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos has made 10 changes, including the omission of star forward Percy Tau, to the 23-man squad that did Africa Cup on Nations duty in Ivory Coast last month ahead of the FIFA Series pilot project in Algeria.

Currently ranked 58th in the world, Bafana will face Andorra (ranked 164th) in an official match for the first time. This encounter will take place at the 19 May 1956 Stadium in Annaba, Algeria, on Thursday, 21 March.

Following this, they will go head-to-head against the hosts, Algeria (ranked 34th), at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers on Tuesday, 26 March, before returning home the next day.

Fan favourite Tau is the biggest name missing from Bafana's Afcon player pile, which claimed the bronze medal at the African football showpiece held over January and February. 

Tau has not played any minutes for his club in Egypt, Al Ahly, since returning from Ivory Coast.

Broos admits that the 29-year-old Tau took quite a beating mentally at Afcon.

"At the end of Afcon, Percy was mentally broken," Broos stated during the squad announcement via SABC.

"He had a lot of critics. It was not fair, but okay... you know, social media can kill someone.

"I called him two weeks later [after Afcon] and said to him I will not call you up for the friendly games and he said, 'no, I want to come' and I said no, stay there so that everything can become calm again.

"So that why Percy is not with us. I don't want him so that they kill him again. It was enough after Afcon. He will be ready again in June [for the World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe]."

Cape Town City forward Khanyiso Mayo, who was not in the preliminary squad, makes the jump straight into Broos's 23-man squad.

The Bafana boss reiterated that while Mayo may have missed out on the chance to go to Africa, he now has a chance to prove himself again in senior national colours.

"We are a little bit in trouble for strikers at the moment," said Broos, as Evidence Makgopa, Lebo Mothiba and Lyle Foster were not included in the squad due to injury.

"There was criticism because he was not at Afcon, and I said what I said and I will still repeat it, that I expected more progress from Mayo. With all those injuries, he gets his chance and it is up to him now.

"Show me now that you have the level to be in Bafana. It is a great opportunity for him."

Elsewhere, there is a return to the squad for Bruce Bvuma, Goodman Mosele, Grant Margeman and Iqraam Rayners.

Meanwhile, former Kaizer Chiefs defender Siyabonga Ngezana, who plies his trade for FCSB in Romania, gets the nod from Broos after he did not make the final cut after first being sighted for Afcon.

During Afcon, the squad's nucleus primarily consisted of players from Mamelodi Sundowns. A notable 10 players were chosen from Masandawana for the tournament, with merely seven of them making a return for the upcoming camp in March.

The FIFA Series aims to bolster international football by facilitating international friendly matches featuring four national teams from diverse confederations, all hosted in a single country.

This initiative will be rolled out in Algeria, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka over the international break in March.

By providing member associations with regular opportunities to compete against teams from other continents, FIFA aims to unlock new technical development prospects which were previously out of reach for many.

Kick-off times will be confirmed in due course.