- Sundowns coach opens up about Parker's injury
- Zungu broke Parker's leg last week
- Parker's medical bills revealed by Sukazi
WHAT HAPPENED: Mamelodi Sundowns head coach, Mokwena revealed Zungu's apology to Parker and extended the club's heartfelt sympathy with the TS Galaxy midfielder. Zungu's irresponsible tackle broke Parker's leg in a Carling Knockout tie where The Rockets beat Downs 5-4 on penalties.
WHAT WAS SAID: Speaking on Metro FM, Mokwena said Zungu felt remorse for his actions and debunked any notion of his player having ill-intentions in that challenge against the former Kaizer Chiefs attacker.
"We we don’t have the benefit of being in Bongani’s position at the time – understanding the intensity, the tempo, the grass, the direction the ball had come into the speed at which he was charging towards the ball – we don’t have that.
"I don’t want to sound like I am condoning the tackle because we are not those type of people. We are not people like that and I know Zungu personally and I’ve known him for many years. He is not the type of person.
"But I’m not protecting him and I’m not condoning the tackle but I also know that football is a contact sport. But I think I understand that contact sports, unfortunately, come with the risk of of many such injuries and, and it was just unfortunate," said Mokwena as per iDiski Times.
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THE BIGGER PICTURE: However, Mokwena was not pleased with the general reaction to the incident, suggesting that some even launched personal attacks on the midfielder.
"What did disappoint me was how people, I think, went even on a personal attack to Zungu and I thought that was a little bit unfair.
"Let’s not also go into a direction immediately of saying maybe he didn’t feel remorse, but maybe Bongs’ understanding was ‘my intention was just to go for the ball’ and he and we sit here because we’ve got the benefit of hindsight," said Mokwena.
WHAT'S NEXT: Parker has undergone surgery and TS Galaxy chairman, Tim Sukazi has revealed how much theclub paid for the veteran's medical bills.
Meanwhile, Sundowns are in the African Football League semi-final where they will rekindle their rivalry against one of their biggest foes on the African continent.
