Chiefs offers player medical retirement
Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Joseph Molangoane’s football playing career may end soon following reports that the club could give him a medical retirement package.
According to sources close to the situation, Molangoane, who has been out of action since he incurred an injury in August 2018, is negotiating with the club.
“The club, through their football manager [Bobby Motaung], approached him with a retirement oer due to his medical condition. Remember his contract ends in June and it will
be almost two years now he has been out of action,” said the source.
Another informant revealed that Molangoane had to undergo a second operation.
“It seems they won’t be renewing his contract after he had to undergo a second operation.
“His prospects of returning to full fitness are slim and the way things are at the moment, his future as a soccer player looks bleak,” said our informant. When contacted, Motaung said
the club would issue a statement clarifying Molangoane’s future as a Chiefs player.
“When the time is right we’ll issue a statement. At the moment there is nothing to say. The club will put out a statement when the time is right.”
Molangoane has been out of action since suffering a broken ankle in Chiefs’ 3-0 MTN8 quarter final victory against Free State Stars in the Glamour Boys’ third match of the season on
August 11 2018.
It was five minutes into the second stanza when Molangoane went in for a sliding challenge on Makhehleni Makhaula, the Stars’ left-back who was trying to clear.
The bone-crunching clash saw the Chiefs player stretchered off, with his night turning from joy to a nightmare.
At the time, it was a case of the winger’s season being over before it had even started, that being his first match of the campaign.
“Tight”, as Molangoane is popularly known in football circles, turned out for just two games in April 2019 after an eight-month hiatus, but the injury reoccurred the following month, in May.
The last setback required more surgery to his lower right leg.
Complicating Malangoane’s situation further since May last year is him being required to undergo another operation. It may also have been the final straw that broke the camel’s back
for Chiefs and prompted the club to retire him on medical grounds.
The defender turns 32 next month.
By Xolile Mtshazo
MtshazoX@sundayworld.co.za
Injury puts Joseph in tight spot
