With Bafana Bafana having boarded the plane to Nigeria yesterday, it seems Hugo Broos' charges have not received a warm welcome in the West African country ahead of their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
On Friday, South Africa take to the field against old rivals Nigeria in Uyo, and back home they are expected to come back with nothing less than a win following the damaging 2-0 loss to Rwanda in October last year.
The second leg against the Super Eagles will be played on South African soil in September.
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Hugo Broos' men currently occupy spot in Group C with three points from two matches, followed closely by Nigeria in third.
Only a single point separates the two nations.
Top of the standings is surprise package Rwanda with four points in the bag, having drawn 0-0 with Zimbabwe in their other match so far.
Nigeria will be desperate to win their first game in the qualifiers since both of their two matches produced draws.
"Bafana Bafana left the hotel at 06:30 yesterday morning," a source reveals to KickOff.
"But [we] still experienced a four-hour delay on their charter flight leaving. [We] had to re-fuel in Angola.
"[We] got to Port Harcourt late, went through passport control and they were back on the plane.
"But to everyone's surprise, the plane could not leave as the final destination, Uyo, had no lights at the airport.
"Because of that, we were stuck at the airport.
"[We] eventually got to a hotel at 02:00 this morning. And we fly at 11:00 today to Uyo."
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Asked if the Bafana players were still in the right frame of mind, and not affected by the hiccups, the source sounded not so sure.
"Difficult to tell. We will see later at training."
The match kicks off at 21:00 South African time.
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