Monnapule Saleng’s agent, Karabo Mathang-Tshabuse of P Management Sports has given an update on the situation of the winger after he was frozen out of the senior team at Mamelodi Sundowns.
In the beginning of August, Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso admitted Saleng is currently not part of the senior team at the club after “consecutively breaking rules and values of the locker room and club”.
He mentioned Saleng not appearing for the second leg in the CAF Champions League final and also the club’s pre-season tour to Austria.
His agent, his now shed more light on his situation, saying it’s a psychological issue.
“I think that I’m also on record at speaking about what happened to go Orlando Pirates,” she told Andile Ncube on Sports Night Amplified on MetroFM.
“To say the issue was more nuanced than a contractual issue, which was what was being reported at the time, and it had to do with welfare and well-being of the player.
“Without breaching his confidentiality, I think that he’s traveled a season that is quite difficult for him to show up as a professional player.
“With Orbit, him being loaned to Orbit, it was Pirates’ move to ease tensions and to help him recuperate with a particular individual that found him. You know, Pogiso is the one who found this gem, took him to Free State Stars to say maybe under his tutelage, his guidance, he can come back into the fold.
“And so he did a loan spell there. We got so much fire for that to say he’s regressing. But again, like I say, you know, he is traveling a very difficult path – and I’m not saying that I know what it is, I don’t.
“I’m not a medical doctor. I can see there’s an issue. I can see how it’s manifesting itself, but it is definitely greater than misbehavior, and that’s the issue.
“People are defining it as misconduct, bad behavior, and Pogiso has come out and said he’s showing up in a way that is unacceptable, which I agree with. But it is more nuanced than that. It is more deeper than that. It’s psychological.
“And I think that there’s a welfare issue that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m not going to leave my client at that stage. We walk through it with him, and we try and get him support.
“And I think that you know Sundowns is professional enough to call it what it is to say there is an issue there. You heard the coach come out and say it, but I think that they are also kind enough to give him the space to try and see how he can recuperate back into the fold of a professional, high-performing player.
“When the psychological safety of an individual, and I can see that it’s a long-standing issue, it manifested itself first at Pirates. It continued at Orbit. He started off well with Sundowns, but there is something there, and I am not qualified to diagnose it.”
Mathang-Tshabuse did insist her agency are trying to assist him in getting the help he needs, but it is an issue where the player needs to be open to be helped.
“What I can do is I can call for help, I can cry for help, I can walk with my client for that help. But it is up to him to say, ‘let’s take it’,” she continued.
“The challenge is, and this is the issue with mental well-being, you cannot force somebody. You can advise, you can set up the meeting. But that’s the issue – if someone doesn’t have the capacity to appreciate what is going on, they cannot have the capacity to then take on the medical help.
“But we’ve raised it. We’ve raised it on all angles, with all the clubs, and I’m on record to say, I think that there is a psychological safety thing, and I’m not sure what more we can do.
“But it it is an issue in football. We we thought Jayden Adams was happy, we thought he was fine, we saw him come back from the World Cup, and we are got the shock of our lives to wake up one day, and there’s actually was a psychological issue.
“And it’s silent, these things…”