Spurs New Boy Bongani Khumalo Ear-Marked For FA Cup Debut Against Charlton on January 9

Bongani Khumalo has been ear-marked to make his debut for Spurs on January 9 – against Charlton Athletic in the all-London FA Cup third round clash at White Hart Lane.

With centre-back Younes Kaboul sent off against Newcastle on Tuesday night and fellow defensive buttresses Jonathan Woodgate, William Gallas and Ledley King all still injured, boss Harry Redknapp is “down to the bare bones” in central defence as the New Year dawns.

Redknapp appears to have only Michael Dawson and Sebastien Bassong to juggle with as Spurs face Fulham at home on Saturday followed by Everton at Goodison Park on Wednesday night.

Though Khumalo, 23, has had his problems with injury and form as champions Supersports United hover just above the relegation zone in South Africa this season, he may have had a chance of playing in those two upcoming Premier League matches. But the big freeze in England has delayed Khumalo’s arrival in North London.

Spurs are likely to shuffle the pack for the FA Cup clash and if Khumalo - whose first name, Bongani, means happiness - has settled and trained well, a debut against the Addicks is “quite likely”. Others believe he needs a spell on loan in the lower division to adapt to English conditions after his grounding in the mediocre South African Premier League.

Khumalo’s planned flight to Heathrow has been delayed with agent Glyn Binkin admitting: "There's been a slight delay because of all the snow – as you know, the work permit was granted a few weeks ago. We’re just waiting for the final visa to be validated - all the documents we had to send over were caught up in the post as a result of the freeze and things have taken slightly longer than we had anticipated.

"I'm certain he'll travel before the end of the week. Spurs have had a lot of injuries and suspensions so it's going to be a great opportunity when he finally gets to London. I hope he will rise to the occasion."

Spurs remain in contention for both the Premier League – their last two wins over Newcastle and Aston Villa came despite being reduced to 10 men twice – and the Champions League, where they finished top of their Group of Death, ahead of European Champions Inter Milan. They face city rival Milan in the first knock-out game on February 15.

But on the domestic knock-out front, Charlton are a potential stumbling block. The former Premier League club have slumped to League One in recent seasons. But the Addicks remain third in their third-flight division despite picking up only one point in their last three games over the Christmas period.

Khumalo, described by a Redknapp as “an African kid from a poor background” after his trial at White Hart Lane in August, has been at pains to state he is not the archetypal foreign signing. An only child whose father was a language professor, he famously responded: “I’m not one of 14 children. I’m probably quite middle class.”

Handed the captain’s armband by Gavin Hunt at Supersports, Khumalo is expected to achieve great things at Spurs after scoring against France during a World Cup when he was one of Bafana Bafana’s few true successes. But he may take time to settle in, especially with temperatures dipping close to freezing in England, conditions he has rarely had to deal with, growing up in Pretoria with Arcadia and University of Pretoria.

But he may be warmed on his landing in London by the simultaneous arrival of Bafana Bafana team-mate Steven Pienaar. Out of contract at Everton in the summer, Pienaar is being consistently linked to a cut-price £2m move to join the Redknapp revolution when the January transfer window opens.

Who the hell is Neal Collins (nealcol on Twitter)? Read today's Natal Mercury or Star in Johannesburg or see www.nealcollins.co.uk.

Mighty Monday: Action from Wembley, Soweto and Melbourne and the World Cup is nearly upon us

YOU know there's a World Cup on the horizon when you spend a Monday night being assailed by "friendly" football from around the globe. England 3-1 Mexico from Wembley, South Africa 1-1 Bulgaria from Soweto... not to mention Portugal drawing 0-0 with the erm... Cape Verde Islands and Argentina beating Canada 3-0.

But perhaps the big pre-World Cup story of the night comes from the greatest island in the world, where the vast Melbourne Cricket Ground witnessed Australia pipping New Zealand 2-1 in a friendly marred by appalling tackles.

Bearing in mind these two nations are generally expected to excel on the cricket and rugby fields, anticipation is high Down Under. But Aussie coach Pim Verbeek slammed his own players - Everton's Tim Cahill and Blackburn's Vince Grella - for a pair of awful tackles, both on Kiwi Leo Burtos.

Both would have been red card challenges in the World Cup and a fuming Verbeek said: "Vince's tackle was worse than Timmy's ... I can't find any reason why they should do what they did. I wanted to take them off immediately but you have to be a bit careful in a game like that.

"If I was the other side, I would have been a little bit mad and might have done something. But New Zealand were very professional and I applaud them - my players were not professional.

"It was a good lesson and I cannot accept what [Grella and Cahill] did. This is not how you should play the game. If it had been a World Cup game there would have been two red cards."

The South African game against Bulgaria was hardly a friendly either. Though all four Premier League stars missed the game in Soweto (Dimitar Berbatov, the Manchester United striker has retired from international football while South Africa’s trio of Benni McCarthy (West Ham), Steve Pienaar (Everton) and Aaron Mokoena (Portsmouth) were all rested) there was no quarter given.

England’s final appearance on home soil before flying out to Rustenburg on Monday was pretty competitive too.

Boss Fabio Capello chose to rest his four Chelsea stars (John Terry, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole and Ashley Cole) after their FA Cup final exertions and went with Tottenham’s injury-prone Ledley King next to captain Rio Ferdinand in central defence.

King promptly scored his first international goal in six years, latching on to club-mate Peter Crouch’s astute far post header. Crouch made it 2-0 from a standing position on the line and though Mexico’s limping Franco pulled one back just before half-time, Liverpool’s Glenn Johnson produced the moment of the match to wrap things up.

A quick one-two with an impressive Theo Walcott saw Johnson break through the Mexican line to bend a shot beautifully into the top corner. Superb.

Quotes of the night though came from World Cup organising committee chairman Danny Jordaan in Soweto. He said: “With the fans here tonight, and the performance on the field, it’s all going well. We can look forward with some optimism to the opening match.”

South Africa’s Brazilian boss Carlos Alberto Parreira said: “They had one shot on goal and they scored. The perfect result is always to win. But I’m happy with the performance. The Colombia friendly, our next game, will be different.”

That opening match sees the hosts take on Mexico at Soccer City on June 11. There were clues to how that would go from London and Johannesburg tonight. And some hard evidence. My advice to Parreira. Keep an eye on former Spurs man Giovani dos Santos, now playing in Turkey. He has lovely hair (permed and hair-banded) but don’t be fooled. The 21-year-old from Monterrey can play.

Okay, hints and allegations, incidents and accidents. I visited the Kiwi World Cup base at the Serengeti east of Johannesburg today. Stunning. But in truth, Argentina, Portugal, England, South Africa, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia have no real idea what to expect out here. And that’s how it should be. The World Cup is nearly upon us.

Carragher on His England Return: I'm Back Because Liverpool Are Rubbish!

JAMIE CARRAGHER today explained his shock decision to reverse his international retirement – a u-turn which saw him plunged straight in to England’s World Cup squad yesterday.

Carragher blamed Liverpool’s appalling season, arguing: “Look, I’m not getting any younger, we’ve got no Champions League football here next season - so why not?”

The 32-year-old quit with some force while former England boss Steve McClaren was in charge three years ago, having earned 35 caps. He found himself down the pecking order behind John Terry, Rio Ferdinand and Matthew Upson, all three of whom were included in Fabio Capello’s 30-man provisional squad yesterday.

In his autobiography released a year later he said: “If I loved playing for my country as much as my club, perhaps the thought of retirement would never have occurred to me. That it did shows me I made the right call. I wasn’t giving up my football career or my ambitions. Only England.”

Essentially little has changed – other than Liverpool’s complete lack of form which saw them finish seventh in the Premier League after making an early exit from the Champions League group stages.

He added: "The FA got in touch a few weeks ago and asked if I would have a rethink due to injury problems. I said I would make myself available.

"The World Cup and Champions League are the top levels of football. I'm keen to work under Capello."

Capello himself said: “We started (talking to Carragher) two months ago. We spoke with him. My assistant Franco Baldini met him two weeks ago and he was happy to stay with us. We decided to select him. I selected him because he is a really, really good player.

“Jamie is one of the 30 players,” said the Italian. “During the training camp I will evaluate the performance of each player.”

Carragher will meet up with the squad – including team-mates Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson – for a high-altitude training camp in Austria next week. Capello has to trim his squad to 23 for June 1, probably choosing five from Carragher, Spurs pair Ledley King and Michael Dawson, captain Rio Ferdinand, former captain John Terry and West Ham’s out-of-form Upson.

Neither Manchester United’s injured Wes Brown nor Everton’s fit again Phil Jagielka made the squad – creating some controversy in England given Carragher’s forthright views on his retirement three years ago. The question has to be: If England didn’t matter three years ago, exactly what’s changed Jamie?