Onduparaka forward Rashid Agau has revealed that he has now healed from the terrible knee injury that saw him not kick a ball since 2021.
For two seasons now, the striker has been ruled out of action!
While narrating his ordeal to Radio Pacis’ Suso Oduomodu on Friday morning, Agau described the experience as nothing less than disappointing and distressful!
“I missed playing football, alot! I missed playing in front of the fans, mostly the Onduparaka fans. I also felt I should have been part of the (West-Nile Province) FUFA Drum team. I miss playing with the boys.”
Agau sustained the injury on while playing for Onduparaka in a friendly game against Kira Young in Kampala, and according to himself, he, at first didn’t think it was so serious, until things started to escalate.
“I thought it was just a minor case. I continued playing with it but after three to four games in the league, I started feeling the impact, the pain got more severe. That’s when my manager Marjok Garabinho advised me to go for surgery, Agau recalled.
After some time of contemplation and sourcing for funds, Agau finally took the bold decision to have his knee operated on at St. Catherine Hospital in Kampala.
Exactly one year after the surgery, the striker is ready to play football and score goals again, thanks to his club and his manager who footed the bills to ensure his successful surgery and recovery.
“The surgery was quite expensive. It took us over 10m (Uganda Shilling) that my manager (Garabinho) and Onduparaka contributed. The club contributed 30% and the rest came from my manager. I really thank them for that,” Agau stated with gratitude.
After the surgery, the doctors recommended that Agau be rehabilitated for full recovery, and would therefore only return to football in May this year. We’re in July now, and Agau still doesn’t want to rush his return. He wants to, but his plan is to do so gradually to avoid any other repercussions.
He says he has been training at 2ambe health club where they have accorded him free services. He believes that he’s doing well, and will be in shape to play when the league resumes in two months time.
“I have started doing some light training, I’m currently doing bicycle riding, aerobics, and can as well kick the ball. Though I haven’t involved myself in any competitive games like the 11-aside. I can’t say it’s because I feel pain, but it’s rather because I still have fear.”
However, there’s like one or two problems at the moment, Agau left Onduparaka in the top division, he recovers now to find them in the second division. Secondly, his contract with Onduparaka expired during the time of his sickness so, logically, he has no club.
Only the former seems to bother Agau, and not the later. The striker who has also once played for Marooms, Arua Hill and Onduparaka over two spells is very open to negotiating a deal with the Caterpillars, despite the fact they’ll be playing in a lower division next season.
“My contract with Onduparaka got done last year. But I feel I haven’t paid back enough to the club. I am still here, and very open to working with Onduparaka again. I still want to play for Onduparaka.”
“Honestly, Onduparaka relegation hurt me so much. I had alot of hope in our boys.”
Agau, however strongly believes that if the Arua-based club can keep most of their current players, with their quality, they’d easily bounce back to the UPL within just one season.
