South Africa coach Gordon Igesund has failed to persuade Everton midfielder Steven Pienaar to change his mind about retiring from international football.
Pienaar made a shock decision in October to quit playing for Bafana Bafana, just three months before the Africa Cup of Nations, and the national team has been rocked by the loss of its captain and playmaker.
The 30-year-old admitted he was struggling to cope with the physical demands of combining his club career with international fixtures and Igesund was unable to convince Pienaar to make a U-turn.
Igesund, who met with Pienaar in England last month, said he is "totally retired from international football" and will "get on with his life at his club."
Pienaar, who is having his second spell at Goodison Park, has been a key player for the Toffees this season as they have made a strong start to the Premier League campaign.
South Africa will prepare for the tournament with friendlies against Malawi, Norway and Algeria before their opening match against debutant Cape Verde on 19 January.
The Robins dominated the early chances at Whaddon Road with Steve Elliott and Kaid Mohamed going close before Shaun Harrad flicked home a low Jermaine McGlashan cross for the 16th-minute opener.
Jake Taylor glanced a header wide for Cheltenham but Hereford levelled with their first attack of the game on 20 minutes. Josh O'Keefe blasted home from 10 yards after his initial header had been palmed away by Robins keeper Scott Brown.
Mohamed was twice denied by Bulls keeper James Bittner after the break while Will Evans went close to snatching victory for the visitors.
"We didn't deserve to lose but didn't do enough to win the game," Robins boss Yates admitted.
"I thought we started really well. We moved it quickly and we moved it with a purpose but once they scored we didn't do it enough. They sat deep and made it difficult for us.
"In the second half, we didn't really play with enough quality, enough tempo or pace to our game to create enough chances. We weren't as good as we wanted to be but we were the team doing all the pressing.
"We were trying to make things happen. They worked really hard and all credit to them for that.
"No-one in our dressing room thought it was going to be easy but it's disappointing because we didn't apply ourselves. They played well but we can play better and we need to do that in the replay.
"We are a disappointed dressing room and they are doing a lap of honour but we are still in it."
Carroll, who is currently on a season-long loan at West Ham from Liverpool and facing an eight-week lay-off due to a knee injury, was with team-mates in Dublin for a weekend Christmas party after the Hammers beat Chelsea 3-1 on Saturday.
The 23-year-old denies any wrongdoing.
A spokesman for the Garda press office in Dublin said officers received a report of an incident at 2.30am on Monday.
A press photographer claimed he had been assaulted in the capital's main shopping district, Grafton Street.
Officers at the city's Pearse Street station are investigating the incident.
It is understood members of the West Ham football team were spoken to by gardai following reports of an assault.
No arrests were made, the Garda spokesman said.
Sunderland have claimed just two wins in 22 Premier League games and Sunday's 2-1 loss at Norwich leaves them just one point above the bottom three.
Gardner, who scored at Carrow Road, admits the team have spoken in length about the reasons for Sunderland's slide towards a relegation fight.
But the midfielder knows the Black Cats must put their words into action before their plight worsens.
He said: "We can't afford to keep talking after games about what we have to do.
"We have to start going out there and doing it. There's no excuses for us anymore. We can't just keep saying things will be fine - we have to make them fine.
"We know we can do it, our second-half performance against Norwich showed that. We know if we play like that, then we'll start winning."
Gardner hopes the side can start their revival with a win over Chelsea at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
"We are desperate for a win. We need to start pushing on," he said.
"Chelsea will be tough but if we can take that second-half performance into Saturday's game, we can win.
"We're slowly starting to find our form. The problem is we need to find it quickly."
The ?1.75million dispute was revealed in the share issue brochure as Hearts launched a scheme to raise ?1.79m at the end of October.
Now Hearts have come to an agreement to pay ?1.5m over a three-year period.
The deal is separate to the settlement of a ?450,000 bill on Monday which staved off the threat of a winding-up order.
Stoke have kept seven clean sheets in 15 Premier League games this season - the most in the Premier League and have conceded just 12 goals, a tally bettered only by Manchester City.
"His record speaks for itself," Coates said in the Stoke Sentinel. "He is very good at organising defensive play and that is a great credit to him. It is a talent, like everything else in the game.
"I think it's one of the features of modern-day reporting that not much credit is paid to defences.
"They just want to talk about goals, but defending is an art as well.
"I know he (Pulis) cut his teeth on Italian football during his early interest in coaching.
"The so-called Catenaccio defensive system interested him and the Italians haven't done too badly, have they, with their four World Cups?"
Stoke are halfway to matching their record of 14 clean sheets achieved in 2009/10, while Saturday's 1-0 win at West Brom moved them to 22 points, their best ever tally after 15 games of a Premier League season.
"I don't want to tempt providence, but fingers crossed that we stay on course," Coates added.
"I realise the vagaries of football, so you have to keep a proper perspective on things.
"But yes, we are having a great run at the moment and it's nice to get away from drawing games to winning them. It makes a fantastic difference to where you are in the table.
"The irony is that our worst performances of the season was probably against QPR... and we won that game."
Stoke travel to Aston Villa this weekend before taking on Everton (home) and Tottenham (away) before Christmas.
