The words a physio says slowly. 77 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Abdelkadir Salhi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sakhile Mkhize is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
At 24 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
The words a physio says slowly. 91 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Israel Oladeji is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
5 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC El Bayadh, another week without a signature from Israel Oladeji.
The words a physio says slowly. 116 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
SquadWords at MC El Bayadh training over how hard people work
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MC El Bayadh, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Abdelkadir Salhi and MC El Bayadh agree another 2 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MC El Bayadh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sakhile Mkhize is living that version at MC El Bayadh, and it tends to show in the first month.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MC El Bayadh, another week without a signature from Abdelkadir Salhi.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at MC El Bayadh has been clear about where Hamza Yacoub stands, which is more than many ever get.