SuperSport United coach Stuart Baxter has revealed that he will not travel to Gabon for his side’s CAF Confederation Cup tie as he starts his preparation for the AFCON qualifier against Nigeria.

SuperSport edged a step closer to retaining the Nedbank Cup trophy after booking their spot in the final with a penalty shoot-out victory against Chippa United, but the 63-year-old mentor revealed that he won’t boarding the plane to Gabon.

‘The club and I have agreed that Kaitano (Tembo, assistant coach, will go with the team while I stay here to start preparing for the Nigeria game,’ he told IOL.

‘I have done some work on the squad, their players and I am reading Nigerian newspapers everyday to try and find out what they are thinking.

‘And I want to try and pick a team with a few warriors that can take us to Nigeria and get us a result.

‘I will be honest and say I haven’t had time because of the commitments here at SuperSport and I have had to tell myself that I will take my SuperSport hat off in the next two days and put on my Bafana hat.

The Scotsman suggested that he would select youngsters, but stated that knowing when to utilise them could prove the difference between failure and success, in addition to requesting the early release of players from clubs, due to most leagues being concluded.

‘We want to keep an element of development there all the time, and I don’t want to regress.

‘We are going to have to look at players that have come in and ask if we should throw them in the deep end in Nigeria, or should they be on the bench, or just in the squad, and have a learning curve.

‘I think those that are going to play are the ones that have been there and done it, but I don’t mean we suddenly start bringing back Morgan Gould, although he’s been fantastic, but we need players with experience, like Dean Furman for example. Itumeleng Khune will also be important in these sort of games.

‘They are away for three days, and I will be at Safa House everyday. When they come back I also go back for the last game of the season (against Platinum Stars on Saturday) because we want to make sure we finish as strong as we can,’ he concluded.

Photo: Sydney Mahlangu /BackpagePix