Kaizer Chiefs captain Itumeleng Khune admits being spoiled by his wife with six meals a day contributed to his excessive weight gain over the past few seasons.
Khune, 35, has returned to the starting line-up after over three seasons where he failed to play more than 10 games across all competitions despite being regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers in South African football history.
Injuries and lack of game time notably added to his level of fitness being lost and he admitted it took him four days to recover after playing 120 minutes in the win over Stellenbosch in the MTN8 quarter-final.
In a rather open and honest admission, the club legend stated he was not living a lifestyle fit for professional footballers but has turned the corner in order to prolong his career with hopes of evenin breaking back into the national team set-up.
“To be quite honest, I thought about that on my way here, on my work to work, I think just after I got married, my wife was spoiling me at home, I would eat six meals a day,” Khune said during the recent media day at the Naturena Village .
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“Every two minutes she would ask are you fine? Do you want something? And without me realising, I was agreeing to everything she was offering. I didn’t realise I was gaining weight but a lot of people could see that.
“I would judge myself when I got on the field because I would perform the same way I have been performing, but obviously the club has the structure, they have… when they do the body fat percentage, there’s a certain level we need to be for our weight.
“I was just focusing on my weight and I was told that it fluctuates and it depends on the [amount] of glasses or water that you’ve drank – because I drink lots of bottles of water, so sometimes to be told it’s maybe the water intake that makes your weight fluctuate.
“So I wasn’t really focusing on my body fat percentage, but I can safely say – now the program worked and now I’m back to my normal, I could even myself, I was like I’m 12-years old, even the clothes, kits – it’s looser than before when it used to be tight.”
Khune also revealed that he’s lost 10kgs already with his new fitness program he’s been undergoing outside of club training and has become committed to work even harder after the early rewards it’s shown by breaking back into the starting line-up under head coach Arthur Zwane.
“I feel great, I can still compete, I said it – I want to compete for the number one spot here at Chiefs and I want to get back into Bafana,” Khune added.
“At some point I was 94kgs and now I’m at 84kgs. I still want to go further down, I know people will say ah this one is sick but I will be happy to test myself on the field and the results will come out negative.
“It’s just the hard work I’ve put in and change of diet, I have to continue working hard, I can’t afford to relax now just because I’ve started playing and say I’m going to relax, no I’ve got a gym here at work and at home and I have to guard what goes in my tummy.”
Khune has racked up 330 appearances for Amakhosi while keeping 150 clean sheets in the process across all competitions, the 2013 PSL Footballer the Year has three league titles, three Nedbank Cups, four Telkom Knockout and three MTN8 titles to his name.
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