Mamelodi Sundowns Midfielder Rivaldo Coetzee has fully recovered from a hernia injury that he sustained early in March this year. The Brazilians Media team caught up with The Kakamas-born star to talk about his journey to recovery, how he dealt with the injury and how he feels being back with the rest of the team post-injury.
“Luckily for me, I was out of the pitch for an entire year when I came to Mamelodi Sundowns so during that time I got to work on my mental well-being and learned how to be strong in such situations. But this time around it’s different because I had to get surgery and I had to be strong mentally [and] because I had built up my mentality before, it worked in my favour during this injury.”
Coetzee expressed how maintaining a positive attitude has helped him with his recovery journey, he said: “I had prepared myself mentally and I knew the recovery journey wouldn’t be easy for me. My positive mindset pushed me to put in a little bit of extra work and I was able to keep my shape during the time I was out and I’m happy about that.”
The Bafana Ba Style player expressed how during the recovery period he had missed the boys at the cub and their vibe. Coetzee also mentioned that for the first two months after his surgery he didn’t go for training at Chloorkop and he didn’t get a chance to interact with his teammates which is the one thing he missed when he was away. The midfielder added that the mood during training at the club with his teammates is always good because everyone is always happy and positive which helps in cheering one up when they’re feeling down.
Rivaldo travelled with the team for the first time this season to KwaZulu-Natal for the encounters against Maritzburg United and Royal AM and hopes to be match ready for Masandawana’s last game of the year on new year’s eve should he get an opportunity to get game time.
“I’m happy to be back with the team and on the bench because that is a good step for me as I have just returned from an injury”. The 25-year-old star further expressed his gratitude to the medical team at the club for looking after him during his injury and consistently checking up on him and his progress.
Mamelodi Sundowns will play their next game for the DSTV Premiership on 31 December 2022 against Orlando Pirates at Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
It’s such a relief to hear that you’re back. We badly missed you in that holding-midfield position Riva. We were badly exposed in your absence, until recently when Tebogo Mokoena was restored to his rightful position. I just don’t know for how long he’s going to perform in that position, but with you in there I always knew that we were always protected. All the best in your road to the full fitness
We’ve got very good and talented players and the elephant in the room is our technical team.They like to try difficult and complicated thing.Look at Teboho Mokoena now he is bossing the middle of the park because he plays the role he was developed for.We signed Mashego from Cape Town City as the best left back in the land but,on his first game as a Downs player when he hasn’t even settled in the team he was made to play as a right back and got injured immediately and now he is out for a very long time.Maema for instance he was creating and scoring goal for us and this season he was made to play some God knows position and you could see the boy was confused and lost in the pitch,at least in the last two games he played where he is good at and his hunger and creativity is back.Some things don’t need an umbrella approach as they are not one size fits all.Hope we learned our lesson.