Everton manager David Moyes has defended his team's decision to withdraw Bafana Bafana midfielder Steven Pienaar from Wednesday night's Nelson Mandela Challenge against Cameroon.

According to AFP, Pienaar had been due to travel to Rustenburg for Wednesday's match but the South African midfielder aggravated a knee injury in Sunday's English Premier League draw against Middlesbrough and Moyes told him to remain in England.

This infuriated the South African Football Association (Safa), who wanted Pienaar to link up with the squad so he could be checked out by their medical team.

But Moyes insists the South Africans have no reason to complain because Everton have followed the correct procedure.

"Steven did not start our game against Boro because he wasn't fit to do so," Moyes told the Sun.

He added: "We brought him on in the second half but it was clear that he was not comfortable. After the game it was a straightforward decision not to send him to join up with South Africa.

"We notified their FA immediately and we will continue to monitor him this week. We couldn't have told them any quicker and if the coach had been at our match, he would have seen for himself that Steven was struggling."

Moyes said Everton have sent scans to South Africa as proof that Pienaar is injured and a club spokesman said: "They were told he had a knock and wouldn't start and that he would only be used in an emergency.

"He came on because we were not winning and aggravated the injury. But the scans of that have been sent to the South African FA after they requested them."