Former Kaizer Chiefs and Cape Town City attacking midfielder Lebogang Manyama has broken his silence after his sudden retirement at the age of 32.
Manyama was forced to hang up his boots at the end of last month. Manyama explains that he was misdiagnosed with a medial collateral ligament injury when in fact he had torn his ACL. This, he laments, made his injury worse as he was put on the wrong rehabilitation regime.
The playmaker began his career at Ajax Cape Town before spells at SuperSport United, Mpumalanga Black Aces, Cape Town City, Konyaspor and Chiefs.
It was at City where Manyama was unstoppable, winning the 2016/17 PSL Footballer of the Year and the PSL Players’ Player of the Season. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to replicate that sort of form since.
“When I went for my third surgery in November, I think the thought just started coming up that this might be my reality,” Manyama told iDiski Times.
“But obviously, I kept on trying to fight and trying to fight, it just didn’t work out, you know.
UPDATE |
— KCM Global Sports (@KCMGlobalSports) June 30, 2023
A long term knee injury forced Lebohang Manyama to retire from football at the age of 32.
"Today marks a very sad day for me as I have to call time on my football chapter as a player," says heart broken Manyama.#DStvPrem#KcmGlobalSports#KCMGSFootball pic.twitter.com/VpIErjPgDs
“But ja, I mean, I tried so many doctors, doctors’ opinions, orthopaedics, just everybody that could help out with something that had to do with a knee around South Africa, to be quite honest.
“There was just nobody who could really fix the problem, because I think it had just gotten to a point where it was just unfixable because I think we might have fixed the wrong place in the first place, you know, which was like two years back.”
When announcing his retirement, Manyama said:
“After being miraculously misdiagnosed with MCL and meniscus tears when in fact I had torn my ACL [and] made it worse whilst rehabilitating the wrong places, today marks a very sad day for me as I have to call time on my football chapter as a player.
“It’s one I take with my head held up high because never did I think I would be so blessed to showcase my talent [and] meet so many wonderful souls along the way and for that I want to thank my family for the undying support from when I was a little boy kicking about in Alex.”
