Banyana Banyana star Thembi Kgatlana has made her long-awaited debut for Racing Louisville in the National Women’s Soccer League.
Kgatlana came off the bench after 85 minutes in Louisville’s 1-0 defeat to Orlando Pride, 10 months after picking up her serious injury for Banyana Banyana at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
The speedy forward ruptured her left Achilles tendon in the third group stage clash against Botswana and had missed not only the rest of the tournament but the last 10 months of action.
Ahead of Saturday’s match, Kgatlana spoke exclusively to iDiski Times journalist Lethabo Kganyago about her long ordeal and her appreciation for her new club for sticking by her despite injuring herself three days after she signed for them.
“I’m very thankful to Louisville as a team for what they did for me the minute I got injured to still prepare me to come back here and to play again,” she said.
“I still remember that I signed the contract with Louisville on a Thursday, three days later on Sunday I got injured at WAFCON.
“But they still showed a lot of support and they showed that they wanted me to be here. I mean, they could have just easily cancelled the contract and said listen, you are no longer our responsibility.
“But the fact that they were able to still show me even in my injury that they still want me and they’ll wait for me to come back to play for them.
“For me, that was I think something that made me to work hard and to look forward to coming back because that was a really difficult time in my life, in my career, to be worrying about an injury and not having a team.”
Kgatlana also thanked everyone that stood by her and helped through this difficult spell.
“I thank my agent and Louisville. They were pretty much great to make sure that the football part of things doesn’t worry me and I focus a lot on recovering and being back at home.
“Also thanks to SAFA [South African Football Association] because they made sure that all my medical plans were done in South Africa, so I could get a proper treatment post the operation, so that I can be able to come back to play.”
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The Banyana striker now has around six weeks to see if she will be fit in time for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, which kicks off on 20 July in Australia and New Zealand.
You can read the full exclusive interview where Kgatlana also states that she is not putting herself under pressure ahead of the World Cup and much more in this week’s iDiski Times, which is available to read on our website.
Source Link Kgatlana Makes Louisville Debut – iDiski Times
