Rulani: Bafana call-up too soon for Mailula

Although he is a big advocate of seeing the evolution of youngsters, the Downs mentor surprisingly told journalists he would have preferred to see Mailula with the U23 team in their Olympic qualifiers rather than the senior team.

Mailula came off the bench in the two back-to-back fixtures against Liberia last month as Bafana booked their spot at next year’s Afcon.

"I'm saying easy does it. I would have loved to see Cassius with the Under-23's not with Bafana. I would have loved to see Cassius with his age group, going to Congo and helping the team to qualify. That's what I would have loved to see," he said.

Mokwena is against young players being thrust in too deep too quickly.

The Downs coach’s latest remarks imply he had his work cut out reminding Mailula to keep his feet on the ground on his return from national team duty.

"We just have to be very careful not to make too much noise. I had to manage Cassius when he came back from Bafana because the youngsters need a little bit of protection. We are not a country that is known to produce world-class talent at a very young age and there must be a reason for that," Mokwena added.

What also triggered Mokwena were questions about 16-year-old Siyabonga Mabena, who is now part of the club’s first team.

"Football nations produce 16-year-olds/17-year-olds that are ready to perform at this level. Why don't we do that? That should be our question and sometimes we overhype. How many years has Themba Zwane been doing this, today you ask me more about Mabena, you should be asking me about Mshishi. You should be asking me about Peter's (Shalulile) consistency for the past four/five years, from Highlands Park, Sundowns, the number of goals. Peter is on 98 goals, why are we not talking about Peter? Why are we talking about Mabena? We should not be speaking about Mabena, Mabena has not done enough to be part of this press conference," he concluded.