Cheche's mental struggle during sports suspension

The last time football was kicked in the country was back on the 22nd of March. This is after President Uhuru Kenyatta issued a directive that suspended sporting activities in the country which consequently led to the suspension of all footballing activities indefinitely.

Despite vaccination rollout campaigns on footballers and other athletes involved in various sports, it has been difficult for footballers around the country to get back to the pitch to do the job that earns most of them a living. Over one month later, still, any hopes of getting back to the turf appear very slim. The suspension was most likely to take its toll on stakeholders involved in the game first hand.

In an interview on the league’s sponsors’ social media pages, experienced Mathare United defender David ‘Cheche’ Ochieng’ has opened up on struggling to cope mentally amidst the presidential decree that suspended their source of livelihood.

 “Personally, I have been really affected. We had just started getting back on form and this (suspension) then happens. When that happens, we all know very well that most teams in the league do not pay on time. So as a player when you are just at home with gyms closed, sports suspended and you don’t have money or even any other way of making cash, it becomes a struggle.”

Many players right now, including me, are struggling mentally with the situation because daily when you wake up to go for training you forget about some problems. When you have a game on the weekend and you lose, win or draw you start thinking of the next game. Right now, we are just at home and we don’t know what is happening. We don’t even know when the country will be opened again for us to play, so it is just mentally disturbing,” the centre back revealed.