Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has opened up on why he write the now infamous “bullet note” to Khuliso Mudau after it caused much controversy on social media.
Many were left wondering what Mokwena had written down after Mudau had dislocated his shoulder in the Nedbank Cup final and was visibly in pain.
But Mokwena had conveyed a message via a small note, which earlier in the week was revealed after professional photograf Vino Snap had pictured it.
“I SAID I COULD TAKE A BULLET FOR YOU!! I’M ASKING YOU NOT TO GIVE UP ON ME,” the note said, with Mokwena explaining the background of his message to Mudau to SuperSport TV.
“Life works in such mysterious ways. Khuliso Mudau, the day before was going through something very, very emotional. Very, very personal,” he stated.
“And like I would do with all my players, I reassured him that he’s got my support. I reassured him that. And this was the day before the match, funny enough, I reassured him that I’d fight any fight for him and with him, and I would take a bullet for him – those were my words.
“I do believe that I would take a bullet for my players, a lot of my players, because they fight for me and they’re on the pitch, and they fight and they give me their all.
“And funny enough, the next day he got injured, but the doctor said to me, there was no damage to the ligaments, which was it was just a normal pop of the shoulder, you know, the ball and socket joint of the shoulder blade and that is not necessarily a very serious injury for a sportsman and they had to just put the shoulder back together.
“But I could see in his eyes that it was extremely painful. And I wrote a note and I said, and I was actually running out of lines, because there was so much more that I wanted to write. In fact, I wanted to say, we are at war here. So don’t give up, you’re the one that helped us get the penalty, you’ve been playing so well. And this is when the team needs you. This is when I need to.
“And funny enough, I said, remember yesterday I said to you, I would take a bullet for you. So don’t give up on me. If that is where we are in relation to the connection, the relationship between me and my players.
“And these are conversations to be honest, Mr. Maluleka that happen behind the scenes a lot with between players and coaches. It just so happened that I couldn’t, because of the stadium, the noise and him being on the other side playing right-back, I couldn’t convey this message to him.”
Mokwena also insisted writing such notes is normal practice for him many fans got upset with the photograf for revealing the content of the note.
“So I wrote a note and I always write these notes. So for me, it’s nothing because that’s how I [operate],” he added.
“Football is also about psychology, football is about relationships and for Khuliso, for him to show me the type of loyalty, the type of commitment, dedication to the club, to myself as the leader of the group, it humbles me and it touches me and it’s something I’m very, very proud of him for doing, I’m very, very proud of him for showing and especially because he’s going through a lot personally.
“And for him to trust me with his own personal issues and his life is also something that humbles me a lot, but I’m very proud that he was able to play and still perform the way he performed in a cup final with the pain that he had.”
