Football Kenya Federation Premier League side Gor Mahia have suspended nine players for boycotting training sessions.
The sanctioned players are said to have missed training sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday as K’Ogalo prepare for the 2022/23 league season that is set to begin in late August.
According to a source within the club, George Odhiambo, Austin Odhiambo, Boniface Omondi, John Ochieng, Ernest Wendo, Benson Omala, Sydney Ochieng, Dennis Ng’ang’a and Alpha Onyango are suspended.
"It is true those players were suspended following their actions of missing out on training sessions days ago," the source within Gor Mahia told GOAL.
"We have been on top preparing for the season only for the players to fail to appear at the training sessions. This is not only unprofessional but also an act of indiscipline on the part of those players.
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"What worries me more is that most of our experienced players are the ones leading these go-slows. They should be the ones guiding the rest in the proper way, but they decided to employ an unprofessional way to pass their concerns."
According to one of the suspended players, they decided to make the move since they were paid only half of their July salaries.
"The club paid us half of our July salaries and the explanations for why that was done were not satisfactory," said the player who requested anonymity.
"We know the season is about to start, but our welfare has to be taken into deep consideration. We do not want to move into the new campaign with pending salaries.
"Let the club settle the pending dues and we will quickly join the rest on the training ground. We are loyal to the club and that is why we have never left, even when it is in a dire situation."
The strike by the players and the action taken by the club to suspend them come a few days after Johnathan McKinstry was confirmed as the new head coach.
The former Uganda and Rwanda head coach took over the reins at the local giants following the departure of Andreas Spiers early in July.
