Pirates star Saleng depressed when he saw his car damaged

Orlando Pirates star Monnapule Saleng has opened up about how finding his car mysteriously damaged at the club’s Rand stadium training base, on the eve of facing bitter foes Kaizer Chiefs in February, saw him underperform in the tie they lost 1-0 courtesy of Olisa Ndah’s own goal.

“I left the house for the gym early that morning and parked my car at the stadium. When I finished training my car couldn’t start... I asked myself what the problem could be because there are cameras at the premises,” Saleng said on the second episode of Pirates’ three-episode TV series, Bucs Camp Season 1, that aired on SuperSport PSL from Monday to Wednesday last week.

“If the problem had started when I was still at home, then I wouldn’t have reached the stadium. I then decided to leave the car there and went home after training. When I came back, I saw that the petrol pipe had been cut. The petrol wasn’t leaking when I left it but when I came back you could see petrol leaking when I tried to start it.”

Saleng, who won the players’ player of the season gong last term, said he was compelled to call his car’s manufacturer to come and ascertain what the problem was. The Pirates ace implied the incident could have easily taken his life, insisting it demoralised him before the game, hence he wasn’t in his element on match day.

“I called the VW  people and they also discovered that the pipe had been cut and it was intentional. When I asked around, no one knew what had happened. So, it was one thing that disturbed me. This happened earlier on the day we were preparing for the camp,” Saleng said.

“My mind was completely off because you ask yourself questions like, if that thing [the petrol pipe] had stayed connected even by a tiny bit and I drove it, what would have happened? That incident changed everything and it disturbed me and my game...you could see I didn’t have the energy. I went there because it was told that I must come and play.”