Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Lebohang Maboe has opened up about how he managed to get over a career-threatening injury and help the team secure a treble this season.
Just before the season started, Maboe was diagnosed with a lateral meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that was expected to rule him out for the entire campaign.
But the midfielder overcame that after going under the knife and through the rehabilitation process to return to action in April.
“Personally, it’s been a tough season and a hard one with a lot of emotions because I got injured at the beginning of the campaign,” Maboe told the media.
“I didn’t take it that well, but I told myself that for me to get better, to heal and give myself another opportunity to come back on the field of play because my injury was really serious, I needed to follow the right protocols.
“It was career-threatening, but I told myself that I have to make peace with that and try to eliminate the outcome and focus solely on the process of me getting better and just taking it a day.
“There are days when you feel like you want to keep on pushing. You want to do more. But the knee doesn’t allow you to do that; when you wake up the next day, you can’t even move. Then there are days when the knee will be responding 100% well.
“So, it was a bit challenging and mentally, it was draining. It was so difficult to always keep myself in the right space.”
The 27-year-old added that he learned some lessons, especially with the people around him, as most disappeared during that injury.
“Through injuries, you get to see who the real friends are because you have a couple of them whom you think will stick with you but wait until you get injured, you will see who the real ones are,” he said.
“Going into the surgery, I had a brief talk with Vila [Sibusiso Vilakazi] because he also had the same injury and he even had more injuries than I had. He is one person I used to talk to and used to tell me that it is going to be hard and it is not going to be an easy road.
"So, that also helped me to talk to someone in the same situation."
I needed to follow right protocols – Maboe on injury
Midfielder says he leaned on teammate Vilakazi for support
Image: Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix/Gallo Images
Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Lebohang Maboe has opened up about how he managed to get over a career-threatening injury and help the team secure a treble this season.
Just before the season started, Maboe was diagnosed with a lateral meniscus and anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that was expected to rule him out for the entire campaign.
But the midfielder overcame that after going under the knife and through the rehabilitation process to return to action in April.
“Personally, it’s been a tough season and a hard one with a lot of emotions because I got injured at the beginning of the campaign,” Maboe told the media.
“I didn’t take it that well, but I told myself that for me to get better, to heal and give myself another opportunity to come back on the field of play because my injury was really serious, I needed to follow the right protocols.
“It was career-threatening, but I told myself that I have to make peace with that and try to eliminate the outcome and focus solely on the process of me getting better and just taking it a day.
“There are days when you feel like you want to keep on pushing. You want to do more. But the knee doesn’t allow you to do that; when you wake up the next day, you can’t even move. Then there are days when the knee will be responding 100% well.
“So, it was a bit challenging and mentally, it was draining. It was so difficult to always keep myself in the right space.”
The 27-year-old added that he learned some lessons, especially with the people around him, as most disappeared during that injury.
“Through injuries, you get to see who the real friends are because you have a couple of them whom you think will stick with you but wait until you get injured, you will see who the real ones are,” he said.
“Going into the surgery, I had a brief talk with Vila [Sibusiso Vilakazi] because he also had the same injury and he even had more injuries than I had. He is one person I used to talk to and used to tell me that it is going to be hard and it is not going to be an easy road.
"So, that also helped me to talk to someone in the same situation."
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