AARON Mokoena will miss the most crucial month in Blackburn Rovers' season so far after deciding to captain South Africa in the African Nations Cup.

The 25-year-old, whose nickname is The Axe, went back to South Africa earlier this week to link up with his international team-mates ahead of the tournament which begins in Egypt later this month.

If South Africa go all the way in the competition then Mokoena could miss up to EIGHT matches for Rovers, including both Carling Cup semi-finals with Manchester United and the third and fourth rounds of the FA Cup.

But the versatile midfielder-cum-defender believes that's a sacrifice worth making if it means he can help restore some lost pride in his homeland after South Africa failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals.

"I would have liked to have stayed and fought to get my place back in the team at Blackburn but it's just one of those things," said Mokoena.

"It's a difficult decision to make but I want to play in the African Cup of Nations and, after speaking with the manager, he accepted that."

Mokoena and his international team-mates are still licking their wounds after failing to qualify for the World Cup, which is why the African Nations Cup has suddenly become even more important.

However, if they are to go all the way and win the trophy for the first time in 10 years then they will have to qualify from a tough group that also includes Zambia, Guinea and the defending champions, Tunisia.

"It's a tough competition now. There are so many good up-and-coming countries in Africa and they all want to do well," said Mokoena.

"You only have to look at the 2006 World Cup and a lot of the African teams that have qualified.

"We do have a chance to do well. We didn't do well in the World Cup.

"But we are going into this with a lot of young players and we are going to try hard to change the situation that we are in now."

The pressure is on South Africa to do well over the next four weeks, particularly as they are hosting the next World Cup in 2010, when they will have the perfect stage on which to promote African football to a global audience.

"We are hosting the next World Cup in South Africa so we really need to try and have as good a team as possible, as soon as possible," said Mokoena.

"We have the potential to do that and we've just got to go out there and do our best."

South Africa kick off their African Nations Cup campaign on January 22 when they face Guinea in the Alexandria Stadium and Mokoena could be away until February 11 if his country were to go all the way.

"It just depends how well we do in the tournament, but if we do well then I could be away for anything up to a month," he added.