Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams posed the question of who cares how they feel in relation to their congested fixture list this season.
Sundowns will have played nine games in April, which included gruelling away travels to Dar es Salaam and Tunis, while seven players also travelled to Algeria for Bafana Bafana duty in the same period.
Williams has already played close to 50 matches for club and country this season but he says it’s something the entire squad have gotten to terms with, and while it’s a challenge not being able to spend much time training and recovering, it’s part of the job of challenging for multiple honours in the modern game.
“It’s tough but the club helps, they are extremely helpful, like the coach mentioned, less training, sometimes it doesn’t help us as a team, you wanna train, you wanna get better, you wanna be perfectionists,” Williams said.
“But it’s very difficult, but we enjoy it as well, it’s our job, once you put on the t-shirt with this badge, this star, you get the motivation to work again even though you’re tired. Even though you’re hurt, you’re injured – it’s very difficult.”
With the African Football League expanding to 24 teams, the FIFA Club World Cup set to take place in June 2025, Africa Cup of Nations and 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on the horizon added to the domestic competitions of Sundowns – it paints a clear picture for Williams and co.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward but us at Mamelodi Sundowns we are taken very good care of with lots of rest, limited training, video sessions, the recovery protocols. You guys saw we landed 1 am and were at training, we had to do it,” he continued.
“We had more time to sleep after that killing two birds with one stone, we did our recovery and we got to sleep more, we woke up and had to come to camp again to prepare for a game, an important game we needed to win. And train in the morning, that’s the mentality we have at the club – who cares how we feel?
“We need to show up, we need to do it – we enjoy it now, it’s part and parcel of our everyday lives, we wake up, get on with the show, win the game and move on to the next one.”
Williams will be aiming to steer Sundowns to their first CAF Champions League final since 2016 when they face Esperance this evening at Loftus Versfeld.