‘He tried to take his own life’ – Igesund on ex-Sundowns star

Former Mamelodi Sundowns and Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund has revealed that Lerato Chabangu tried to take his own life during his playing days.

Chabangu played arguably the best football during his career under Gordon Igesund at Moroka Swallows. The team finished runner-ups in the Betway Premiership during the 2011/12 season.

Speaking to Peter du Toit on SoccerBeat, ex-Sundowns coach Gordon Igesund revealed Chabangu tried to commit suicide in the early 2010s while still at Swallows.

“We are playing away from home, we were travelling to Polokwane I think. We left at 13:00 because the next day we were playing and we were going to travel and Lerato never turned up. So I had the bus there and waited for about 30 minutes and suddenly he came to the bus. Nothing wrong, he wasn’t drunk in any way,” Igesund said.

I said to him ‘Lerato, we waited half an hour for you, you not gonna come with today, you gonna go home, go sort yourself out and decide from there and I’ll see you on Monday’. We were halfway through the trip and our doctor phoned me and said to me ‘Lerato tried to take his life because he felt he let me down.’ He was genuine about that because I did a lot for him.” he said.

Igesund also coached Lerato Chabangu at Sundowns

“Fortunately the doctor was there and did what he had to do and so on and so forth, I don’t want to talk too much about it,” said the ex-Orlando Pirates coach.

How good was Lerato Chabangu at Swallows?

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