Khama Billiat's decision to honour a national team call-up despite news that he would be unavailable due to injury appears to have rubbed his club coach Erns Middendorp up the wrong way if the German's reaction is anything to go by.
The Kaizer Chiefs attacker was said to have hurt his "pelvic area" following Amakhosi's win over Cape Town City on August 27 as per a statement from the club, and as a result the player had missed the first leg of Zimbabwe's World Cup qualifier against Somalia, only to surprisingly join the Warriors for the return match.
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Billiat scored a stunning goal two days ago as Zimbabwe won 3-1 to overturn the 1-0 deficit from the away leg, and Middendorp – speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon – did not sound impressed at all.
"You should talk to the player," said a visibly annoyed Middendorp, who had just been announced the Absa Premiership Coach of the Month for August.
"I actually have my own idea in this direction – and the player made the decision. We were not able to use the player as a club for the full 90 minutes at all, and I understand wanting to serve his country and so on. That is why I say ask Billiat. How is he capable then, three days later, to do something responsible? I have my own idea about it, when talking about loading and effective training loading. One idea is to get the player totally injury free, secondly is to get the player to a certain effectiveness so he can contribute to a team performance. The rest you can make up your mind (about)."
Billiat was the subject of interest from his old club Mamelodi Sundowns during the recently shut transfer window and there were initial question marks about his injury even before the season kicked off after he missed Amakhosi's two opening league games.
Chiefs told Downs the player was not for sale.
Now, Middendorp has clearly indicated that he would have rather Billiat not report for national team duty, but that wasn't the case…
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