After a year, when he was unavailable due to club commitments, Nel re-joined the South Africa U20 squad for the 2015 African Youth Championship qualifiers in August 2014 and played in both legs against Cameroon. He was called up as part of the final 21-man squad for the tournament in March 2015, but was not released by his club to take part in the training camp. In the group stage he played two matches against Ghana and Mali and was an unused substitute against Zambia.