30 November 2024 – South African Football Association (SAFA) Chief Medical Officer Dr Thulani Ngwenya has been appointed by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to oversee the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) assessments that will be conducted on the players participating in the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations 2025 | COSAFA Qualifier in Johannesburg next month.
The tournament will be held in Johannesburg from 4 December – 13 December 2024 and Dr Ngwenya said the MRI assessments will be used to confirm the eligibility of all the players in the event. “This process is done to safeguard the game and to ensure that every player participating in the tournament is eligible to play in the CAF U-17 category,” he said.
Dr Ngwenya continued and said the eligibility is based on players born from 1 January 2008 and the tests will be used to ensure that they are within the required birth date range for the competition. The SAFA Chief Medical Officer has been constantly on the move this year after attending the Aspire Academy Global Summit in Qatar earlier this month.
The Summit discussed Sports Science conversation with other Global Football Associations and covered topics like “The evolution of Football performance & Science over the last decade; The technical-tactical (r)evolution of the last 10 years in world football & The future of football performance.
The Summit gave SAFA an opportunity to engage with other federations in the world and it also helped gauge where the Association is when it comes to the modern global trends of Football Science. “I hope to use the lessons learnt to help our national teams and football development to rise to even greater heights. Our biggest vision is to play major tournaments in the world, not only to participate but to really perform well so that we are a strong force to be reckoned with in the Global space,” the SAFA Chief Medical Officer said. “We have enormous potential and we are on the right track, and this Summit enhanced our prospects.”
Dr Ngwenya also attended a CAF Medical Committee Workshop in Addis Ababa last month where they discussed critical medical issues affecting African football. “There were very robust discussions, and we made resolutions on many issues that are going to take African Football to greater heights.”
