Former Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has narrated the clash with Monnapule Saleng in the club’s behind-the-scenes documentary Giants.
The second instalment of Giants focusses on the club’s elimination from the Carling Knockout Cup as well as the 1-0 Soweto Derby win over Kaizer Chiefs.
Pirates were the clear favourites in their CKO Last 16 tie over Magesi at home, but found themselves 3-0 down at half-time.
Riveiro is then shown shouting at the squad during the break, asking “Do I have to do five subs? Is everybody alright? Saleng or you alright?”
The winger is seen shaking his head, to which the coach responds: “No? Okay, out. Where is Nkota? Take Nkota.”
The camera then switches to Riveiro narrating the situation, saying he felt like something was up with Saleng.
“The period of decision was weird, with Saleng… So he takes you to a weird space, to start to speculate if he’s ok or not, if he really wants to play for the team, or not,” the Spaniard explains.
“Because we know Saleng, we know what he’s capable of doing – always ready to play, always ready to train, always delivering incredible performances.
“And we have a weird half-time, we have a weird game against Magesi in the Black Label Cup. You could see that the boy is not happy, he’s just not himself. He’s not the guy enjoying every action even if he has to run to defend 60m, he enjoys the action as well.
“And he wasn’t there…”
Saleng was seen walking away from the dressing room in the documentary, with Riveiro narrating the scene further.
“I tried to concentrate on what’s coming for the ones who want to go to the field and fight for the team one more time, another 45 or 50 minutes, and not giving time or energy to that issue, even though it was not something really nice to see,” he stated.
Saleng himself was also briefly asked about the situation, but only gave a cryptic answer.
“What caused the situation? A lot of things. A lot of things happened,” he said.
More about the Saleng situation is expected to be revealed at following episodes of Giants, which airs on Sunday’s at SuperSport TV.