Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Lebohang Maboe admits it’s been a challenge to sit from the sidelines with the first long-term injury of his career.
Maboe had become a mainstay for Sundowns and broke into the Bafana Bafana squad prior to the knee injury which forced him to undergo surgery potentially ruling him out of the 2021/22 campaign.
The utility midfielder played 38 games for Masandawana last season as they won the DStv Premiership, the third league title of his career and he’s now opened up about the nightmare spell on the sidelines.
“It’s really not easy having to deal with a long term injury, [going] from being active your whole life, preparing for camps and for games to just sitting at home and watching the team play. You always wanna be involved in the sessions and in the games,” he told the club’s website.
“Keeping myself motivated the whole time hasn’t been easy. One of the things I have learned is to take it one day at a time, you don’t really know what that means until you have to be out for [6 months].
“[After the operation] you can’t do some of the things you do on a daily basis, for example getting in and out of bed – you can’t do that on your own so I had to rely on my family to help me.
“With regards to rehab it can also be frustrating, you can wake up one day and the knee might not be responding as well as the other days.
“As much as you want to push yourself, there’s nothing you can do, you just have to wait for the knee to heal.”
Overall Maboe has racked up 195 appearances for Sundowns and Maritzburg United respectively since his m, scoring 26 goals and registering 23 assists.
