Saleng’s struggles are ‘psychological’, says agent after Sundowns exclusion

Monnapule Saleng’s agent says the winger’s absence from the Mamelodi Sundowns senior team is linked to a psychological and welfare issue, rather than simply misconduct or bad behaviour.

Karabo Mathang-Tshabuse, of P Management Sports, said Saleng had been experiencing a difficult period in his career and that her agency was trying to help him access the support he needed.

Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said at the beginning of August that Saleng was not currently part of the club’s senior team after “consecutively breaking rules and values of the locker room and club”.

Cardoso also referred to the player’s failure to appear for the second leg of the CAF Champions League final and Sundowns’ pre-season tour to Austria.

Mathang-Tshabuse has now provided further details about Saleng’s situation during an interview with Andile Ncube on Sports Night Amplified on MetroFM, stressing that she was not medically qualified to diagnose the player.

“I think that I’m also on record at speaking about what happened to go Orlando Pirates,” she told Andile Ncube on Sports Night Amplified onMetroFM.

“To say the issue was more nuanced than a contractual issue, which was what was being reported at the time, and it had to do with welfare and well-being of the player.

“Without breaching his confidentiality, I think that he’s traveled a season that is quite difficult for him to show up as a professional player.

“With Orbit, him being loaned to Orbit, it was Pirates’ move to ease tensions and to help him recuperate with a particular individual that found him. You know, Pogiso is the one who found this gem, took him to Free State Stars to say maybe under his tutelage, his guidance, he can come back into the fold.

“And so he did a loan spell there. We got so much fire for that to say he’s regressing. But again, like I say, you know, he is traveling a very difficult path – and I’m not saying that I know what it is, I don’t.

“I’m not a medical doctor. I can see there’s an issue. I can see how it’s manifesting itself, but it is definitely greater than misbehavior, and that’s the issue.

“People are defining it as misconduct, bad behavior, and Pogiso has come out and said he’s showing up in a way that is unacceptable, which I agree with. But it is more nuanced than that. It is more deeper than that. It’s psychological.

“And I think that there’s a welfare issue that I can’t put my finger on, but I’m not going to leave my client at that stage. We walk through it with him, and we try and get him support.

“And I think that you know Sundowns is professional enough to call it what it is to say there is an issue there. You heard the coach come out and say it, but I think that they are also kind enough to give him the space to try and see how he can recuperate back into the fold of a professional, high-performing player.

“When the psychological safety of an individual, and I can see that it’s a long-standing issue, it manifested itself first at Pirates. It continued at Orbit. He started off well with Sundowns, but there is something there, and I am not qualified to diagnose it.”

Saleng began his recent spell with Sundowns positively, according to his representative, but Mathang-Tshabuse said the concerns affecting him had previously emerged during his time at Orlando Pirates and continued during his loan spell at Orbit.

She said the move to Orbit had been intended to reduce tensions and give the player the opportunity to recover with the support of Pogiso, who had initially identified Saleng’s potential and taken him to Free State Stars.

The loan move had attracted criticism from people who believed it represented a step backwards in Saleng’s career. Mathang-Tshabuse said that interpretation failed to reflect the difficulties he had been facing.

Agent says help cannot be forced

Mathang-Tshabuse said P Management Sports had raised concerns with all of Saleng’s clubs and was attempting to guide him towards professional assistance. However, she said the player had to be willing to accept that help.

“What I can do is I can call for help, I can cry for help, I can walk with my client for that help. But it is up to him to say, ‘let’s take it’,” she continued.

“The challenge is, and this is the issue with mental well-being, you cannot force somebody. You can advise, you can set up the meeting. But that’s the issue – if someone doesn’t have the capacity to appreciate what is going on, they cannot have the capacity to then take on the medical help.

“But we’ve raised it. We’ve raised it on all angles, with all the clubs, and I’m on record to say, I think that there is a psychological safety thing, and I’m not sure what more we can do.

“But it it is an issue in football. We we thought Jayden Adams was happy, we thought he was fine, we saw him come back from the World Cup, and we are got the shock of our lives to wake up one day, and there’s actually was a psychological issue.

“And it’s silent, these things…”

Mathang-Tshabuse said Sundowns had recognised that Saleng was dealing with an issue and had given him time and space to try to return to the demands of being a professional, high-performing player.

She added that the matter was not straightforward and that she remained uncertain about the precise nature of the problem, but insisted she would continue to support her client.