Khenyeza anticipates slow restart to GladAfrica Championship campaign
TS Galaxy head coach Mabhuti Khenyeza says at this stage, as the football season is about to resume, it is all about mental fitness more than physical condition.
Mabhudi Khenyeza, head coach of TS Galaxy (Ryan Wilkisky/BackpagePix)
Teams did resume training earlier this month and are set to return to the pitch next weekend.
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Khenyeza says as the leader of the team, he needs to sharpen his mind ahead of the restart so that his positive attitude can rub off on the players who are clinching on to hopes of gaining promotion to the top flight.
“If I am weak they are weak, if I am strong they are strong. I am the one who has to be strong in all directions, mentally I need to be stronger and I need to encourage them and be positive all the time and that brushes off on them. If I show any signs of weakness there’ll be a problem again but I have overcome some other situations where I found out that I need to be positive mentally.
“It is about the mind that needs to tell the body then we carry on. It’s all about the mind telling the body and then the body needs to function, it is like that. Even if the tank is empty, if your mind is telling you that you can go, you can go. What I am saying is that we can have the fitness but if our mentality and attitude is not there you can’t do anything,” said Khenyeza.
“In all the teams I don’t think there is anyone who reached their full fitness. They are at 80% and 70% so we need to just know how to deal with it in the game and I recover because sometimes you see a player looking fit and when it comes to the game it is the opposite,” he added.
The former striker says he anticipates a slow start, much like how teams across the world got off the ground in their resumptions.
“We experienced something that has never happened all over the world, to be out without being active in football. We saw in Europe that they started with a low tempo but they adjusted after a while. It has been difficult, not only physically but mentally and psychologically. At the end of the day we need to play because that is what we know how to do. We have been trying by all means to work on all aspects so that we manage to overcome the situation.”
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