Itumeleng Khune admits his extended absence from the first team over the past few seasons needed him to make some adjustments at Kaizer Chiefs.
The Chiefs keeper, who’s one of the few one-club men in South African football is widely considered one of the greatest goalkeepers in the history of South African football.
Despite the immense talent that’s earned him plaudits across the continent and at one point recognised globally for his unique distributions, injuries and lack of fitness have seen him fall out of favour of the last few years at Amakhosi.
When probed by iDiski Times whether his body has adjusted to the demands of playing regularly again after featuring less than 10 times across all competitions in each of the last three seasons, Khune was frank in his admission that it’s not been easy.
“To be quite honest, you’re right, for the past three seasons I’ve not been playing so many games so the body is not used to that,” Khune admitted.
“After playing 120 minutes against Stellenbosch, it took me four days to recover fully, even though I was doing ice baths and all the recovery methods you can use.
“It took me close to four days to recover fully but now the body is slowly getting back into recovering after a day or two after every match.
So I’m looking forward to competing with the best goalkeepers we have in our department and hopefully keeping the number one spot for a long time.”
The veteran stopper went on to state that the support he’s had during this period upon his return has also played a crucial role and he’s feeling more youthful with the extra training sessions he’s notably been having – as he often shares it on social media.
“It’s helped a lot, thanks to everyone that’s been pushing me, the coaches here at Chiefs,” he added. “They like it when I do extra work at home, so that’s pushed me to do more and I feel young again!”
