Mystery surrounds Blackburn Rovers striker Benni McCarthy's decision to pull out of the South Africa squad this week.

Bafana Bafana play international friendlies against Norway in Rustenburg on Saturday and Portugal in Lausanne on Tuesday as the country's preparation for the Confederations Cup gathers momentum.

However, they will have to do without the Blackburn forward, who has failed to report to camp despite playing 90 minutes for his club against West Ham at the weekend.

National team doctor Ephraim Nematswerani confirmed a scan revealed no damage to the hamstring he had complained about and said he was fit to play.

"I had a telephone discussion with Benni following up on the report I had received from his club's medical team, but Benni insisted that he feels tremendous pain from a hamstring injury," said Nematswerani.

"The player's club found that the hamstring was normal and that the club had no objection for McCarthy to travel."

The 31-year-old retired from international football following the 2002 World Cup but was persuaded to return by then coach Carlos Alberto Parreira in 2006 after several years of snubbing the national team.

Current coach Joel Santana dropped a strong hint the country's all-time leading scorer needed to improve his attitude or face the consequences.

"We are still going to make a decision on the names to be sent to FIFA," he said regarding the selection of his final squad for the Confederations Cup, which will be held in the country in June.

"But our selection is not based only on how good a player is, but also on the correct attitude."

Captain Aaron Mokoena, who is McCarthy's team-mate at Blackburn, was also baffled by his absence.

He said: "We played together for 90 minutes on Saturday, but I didn't see him injured. We didn't speak afterwards as I had to rush to board a flight to South Africa."