Olisa Ndah of Orlando Pirates during the Betway Premiership 2024/25 match between Orlando Pirates and Polokwane City at the Orlando Stadium, Soweto on 24 September 2024
Muzi Ntombela, BackPages
Agent Mike Makaab has revealed what he recently told injured Orlando Pirates defender Olisa Ndah, who has suffered injuries during times when he is doing well and attracted overseas interest.
The lanky Nigerian defender suffered a big blow recently when he sustained an injury that is guaranteed to keep him out of action for the rest of the year. At the time, Ndah was leading the team as captain and was in fine form at the back, making his way back into the Nigerian national team for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
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This is not the first time the 26-year-old is dealing with a setback of this nature. Last year, when he returned in the MTN8 final against Mamelodi Sundowns, Ndah had been out of action for about eight months. The defender has previously attracted interest from clubs in Italy, Sweden and the USA, but his injuries have not helped in terms of playing consistently over a long period of time.
Makaab, however, is not disheartened by the player’s latest injury. He, in fact, believes the defender will come back stronger and will eventually make that inevitable move abroad.
“Any football player who has these injury setbacks in their career gets affected with the timeline of a potential move. It’s unfortunate because it’s happened at a time when he got the captain’s armband and he was probably playing some of the best football of his life. He was called up to the Nigerian national team and even featured for a number of minutes for the national team,” Makaab said to the Siya crew.
“He had set himself up for the next big surge in his career, but I am going to tell you what I said to him. I told him that God has blessed him with talent. I’ve represented a number of top sportsmen and one of them was Butch James, the World Cup winning flyhalf with the Springboks. Butch had serious setbacks with knee injuries and just as I said to Olisa, it depends what you want from your life. You can take these setbacks and they can strengthen you mentally and who knows what might happen afterwards. With Butch James, 12 months later he was lifting the World Cup as the starting number 10 for the Boks. The same thing can happen with Olisa Ndah.
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“Olisa is a strong young man and he is a clean living man, which is very important. I have no doubt that Olisa will come back a stronger human being and a stronger resilience and determination. And if that’s the case, then all that’s happened is that the inevitable has been delayed somewhat.”
By Tshepang Mailwane
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