{"id":36796,"date":"2026-03-12T18:59:55","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:59:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/?p=36796"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:59:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T16:59:55","slug":"kekana-focused-on-sundowns-amid-bafana-snub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2026\/03\/12\/kekana-focused-on-sundowns-amid-bafana-snub\/","title":{"rendered":"Kekana focused on Sundowns amid Bafana snub"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_36797\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36797\" style=\"width: 770px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-36797\" src=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33-770x607.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"770\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33-770x607.jpeg 770w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33-1170x922.jpeg 1170w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33-768x605.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 770px) 100vw, 770px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36797\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image credit: Backpagepix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Mamelodi Sundowns defender, Grant Kekana, says his recent omission from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2026\/02\/05\/bafana-to-face-in-panama-in-world-cup-preparations\/\">Bafana Bafana<\/a> squad recently is not a concern for him as he remains focused on helping his club achieve its objectives.<\/p>\n<p>The 31-year-old centre-back has struggled with injuries, but has worked his way back to fitness.<\/p>\n<p>Despite his improved form, he has not cracked the nod with Bafana coach Hugo Broos, for the preliminary squad named for back-to-back friendly matches against Panama later this month.<\/p>\n<p>The matches will form part of preparations for the FIFA World Cup in June.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/2026\/02\/17\/sundowns-to-face-stade-malien-in-champions-league-quarter-finals\/\">CAF Champions League<\/a> press conference at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Thursday, Kekana said his priority remains with Sundowns.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think my primary focus is definitely Mamelodi Sundowns, they are the ones who give me a platform to get selected for the national team. Right now my focus is at my club,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Masandawana will host Stade Malien in a Champions League quarterfinal first leg on Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>Kekana said they were positive about getting a good result going into the match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As players I think we are in good spirits; I think we have been on a good run, so the confidence is high. We know the stakes are high, especially going into this stage; we know what is expected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We\u2019ve prepared well and everyone is going into tomorrow\u2019s game fully focused, knowing what is at stake and what is expected from us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Full steam ahead! \ud83d\udca8 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Sundowns?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Sundowns<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/TotalEnergiesCAFCL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#TotalEnergiesCAFCL<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AreyengMasandawana?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AreyengMasandawana<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H2OEgNO6FG\">pic.twitter.com\/H2OEgNO6FG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Mamelodi Sundowns FC (@Masandawana) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Masandawana\/status\/2032096506468049045?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Written by: Ntsako Mukhari<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mamelodi Sundowns defender, Grant Kekana, says his recent omission from the Bafana Bafana squad recently is not a concern for him as he remains focused on helping his club achieve its objectives. The 31-year-old centre-back has struggled with injuries, but has worked his way back to fitness. Despite his improved ...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":36797,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1323,1301,1692,2969,1376,1809,2695,2747],"class_list":["post-36796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bafana-bafana","tag-caf-champions-league","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-grant-kekana","tag-hugo-broos","tag-mamelodi-sundowns","tag-panama","tag-stade-malien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-03-12-at-18.33.33.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36796"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36796\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36798,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36796\/revisions\/36798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.yfm.co.za\/devworld\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}