Brockie Explains 'I'm Not Injured' Tweet

Retired New Zealand international, Jeremy Brockie detailed his struggles at Mamelodi Sundowns, working under Pitso Mosimane.

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The story

Former Mamelodi Sundowns and SuperSport United striker, Jeremy Brockie sat down with his former teammate, Michael Morton to discuss his football career, touching heavily on Brockie's five years in Mzansi.

During in time in the PSL, the Kiwi managed to bag 68 goals for both Tshwane clubs and for Maritzburg United, where he enjoyed a season-long loan from Downs.

After Brockie shared his experiences of signing for SuperSport United, from the point he was scouted by Gordan Igesund to the warm welcome he received in the country.

He speaks highly of his former teammates, coaches and general environment he was exposed to at Matsatsantsa, sharing plenty of kind words to his former coach, Stuart Baxter and ex-teammate, Thuso Phala.

On his move to Sundowns, Brockie stated that his teammates welcomed him well to Chloorkop but admitted that after a few weeks, he started to find things a little difficult.

After struggling a bit in his first half season at the club, Brockie was struggling to gel with the team on the pitch, as his target man-esque style of play clashed with Sundowns' approach.

"I was sort of in and out of the team, I think Vila [Sibusiso Vilakazi] and Mshishi [Themba Zwane] were playing on the wings. Again, unbelievable players, I'm certainly not having a go at them because I admire them as football players, look at what Mshishi is doing for the national team, but they're not players that will cross the ball.

"So after one of the games, Pitso comes up to me and says 'You must go to Vila and Mshishi and tell them to cross the ball to you,' I was not going to do that, firstly, they're not the type of players that do that and that's not really my job as a struggling player at the time, to go to two of the team's most high-profile players to tell them to start crossing the ball for me," stated Brockie, adding:

"It was a situation that, unfortunately, didn't go my way. Yes I was part of league title wins, it's special to be apart of that but when you're not playing and contributing like you feel you can, or know you can, but you're not... As a player, looking back on my career, I value those MTN8 wins and Nedbank Cup wins with SuperSport more than those league triumphs at Sundowns, because I was actually involved and scoring goals. Yes, it's nice to have those league medals and it was a good experience travelling to Africa for the Champions League, it certainly was a tough time in my career," added Brockie.

Brockie also looked back on a game where he was hooked off at half-time despite scoring a brace: "I had scored two goals in the first time, I had pretty much scored three goals in two and a half games. We go into the change room at half time and Pitso goes: 'Brockie, you're off, you've scored enough goals, we'll give someone else a chance now', and I was like: 'Really? I've just started getting my confidence back', so yeah, it was just mental challenges like that weren't easy." 

When he wanted to get a move to earn some more game time, Brockie revealed that he was blocked from joining certain clubs and was sent to Maritzburg.

"I was speaking to Mike Makaab, my agent at the time, he said SuperSport were interested, Cape Town, Pirates as well and they all obviously expressed their interest to Sundowns and they were like 'No, you're not going to any of those clubs, this is the club you're going to' and I was like: 'Okay'. No disrespect to Maritzburg, because I had played there in previous season and the crowd hums there, there was a good vibe and at the time, It wasn't the club that I wanted to go to and I was saying to Mike, asking why I couldn't go to those clubs and they're like: 'No, because those clubs are at the top of the table and Maritzburg is down struggling at the bottom," added Brockie, saying that he enjoyed his time playing and living there.

"I didn't care about the money, I just wanted to play football," says Brockie, on why being on the bench at Sundowns wasn't an easy experience.

The retired striker touched on the infamous incident when Sundowns incorrectly stated that Jeremy Brockie was injured. When the Sundowns media representative didn't take Brockie's name off the injury list after he inquired about why he was placed on it, he explains why he took it upon himself to tweet about it.

"I had finished training and I wasn't named in the squad that went to camp or whatever for the weekend and I thought, cool, let me use this time to spend with the family. I'm sitting on the couch and I go on Twitter and there was list made available of the players that were injured.

"I see my name and I go 'Jess [his wife], they said that I'm injured, that's why I'm not in the squad. That's not right, I'm fully fit'. I rang the media guy to point out the mistake and he told me that he'll find out. I said no I'll find out, I'll ring the the Physio and he can maybe call you to sort things out, the media guy assures me that he'll call the physio. I say, 'Okay cool let me know what he says.' I wait 15 minutes and ring him back to ask what the Physio said. He agreed that I wasn't injured so I ask the media guy to take me off the injured list, he agrees, I wait another 15-20 minutes, text him, asking when my name will be taken off the list.

"The time he keeps ticking and I call media guy again, saying that if he doesn't take my name of that list, I will tell people that I am not injured.

"I told that I'll give him ten minutes and If it's not there, then fine. I waited 10 minutes and it's still there. I send the tweet saying: Breaking News: I'm not injured."