PSL star Rodney Ramagalela has opened up on dealing with mental health issues after losing his father, mother, and daughter and his house burning to ashes all in the space of four years.
The 34-year-old recently buried his father in April this year following a short illness.
In 2021, Ramagalela’s house was gutted by a fire in his home village Mamvuka in Limpopo, a few days before Christmas. The 2017/18 DStv Premiership joint-top goal scorer lost his mother and daughter, both in 2019.
On top of that, Ramagalela suffered two career-threatening injuries that required operations and lengthy layoffs from football.
TOUGH TIMES FOR STRIKER RODNEY RAMAGALELA
The former Mamelodi Sundowns marksman has opened up on the difficult times and admitted it was not easy to cope.
“For the past five years, there has always been something major happening in my life. It’s either someone has passed on or I am going through an operation, for five years,” he told FARPost.
“There is no one that can cope with that, but I managed to live with that.”
Ramagalela recently left the University of Pretoria after his short-term contract expired at the end of the season. He featured nine times for the Motsepe Foundation Championship side, scoring once.
HOW PSL PLAYERS CAN DEAL WITH MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES
Ramagalela is also of the view that his peers in football are facing similar problems but are hesitant to deal with them head-on because of pride.
He also made a plea to the powers that be to initiate programmes that are designed to help players deal with mental problems.
“[Mental Health] is a disease that needs to be sorted out immediately. The pressure itself of playing football is too much and there are so many expectations,” added Ramagalela
“People are fighting for contracts, you also need to achieve something as an individual. But if you are going through that [mental disorder] you need to deal with off the field. That disrupts the performances of the player.”
“[Mental issues] do exist in football. it’s just that with our pride as football players we can’t come out and seek help. In our industry, there should be an organised facility where players can get help from.”
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