No luck for Ndong
While Papy Djilobodji’s future was resolved yesterday, Didier Ndong’s was sorted last month but although he got what he wanted in leaving the club, his situation hasn’t improved any.
Ndong has been training with third division Gabonese side Sports Club Libreville - a club he founded last year - and has suitably impressed enough for them to explore the possibility of registering him so he can play in their league campaign.
Unfortunately for the player, that hit a brick wall due to the €4m compensation Sunderland will be due once he finds a new club.
According to Gabonese outlet iSport, that’s not the only issue surrounding the 24-year-old as they say a source close to the league claim Ndong is struggling to even afford the CFA 500,000 (around £665) player registration fee the league require.
We also understand that Ndong was offered to a Welsh Premier League side but for obvious logistical reasons, couldn’t offer the Gabonese international what he was asking for.
Papy thanks god
Speaking of Djilobodji, the Senegalese defender took to social media last night to thank god for everything - presumably the 29-year-old was celebrating that his ordeal with Sunderland over.
Lamine Kone showed up in the comments to wish his former team-mate well saying:
praise to god my guy god bless you will come back stronger god willing the jealous will lose weight
Although that latter expression actually means ‘their bitterness, envy, resentment and wickedness will put them in a psychological state that will cause them depression, weight loss and even death’, it’s ironic that one of the reasons for Djilobodji’s predicament was his apparent unwillingness to lose weight.
Opposition defender devastated by injury
During Sunderland’s last game at the Stadium of Light - a 3-0 win over Southend United in League One - an opposition went down with an injury and was unfortunately ruled out for the rest of the season and could well be out until 2020.
Ben Coker suffered the injury in the 21st minute when he got his studs caught in the turf which caused him to rupture both the anterior and lateral cruciate ligaments in his knee.
The 29-year-old said it has been a difficult time for him since then, with a lot of tears but he is determined to bounce back.
I did a lot of crying and then I had a scan to see what it was, he told me it would take a bit longer than an ACL and that I was looking at 12 and a bit months.
I cried more after that and having to tell everyone about it was the hardest bit because when I was in there with him it was all a bit of a blur.
But, after a couple of days, I sat down with the missus and spoke about everything and how I’m going to get through it.
I know I will have some really bad days and some really long days too but there will be more good days than bad days. I’ll take it one day at a time and go from there.
It’s the start of a long journey but hopefully it will be a successful one.
I put my foot down and the turf went away from me, there was a big divot in the ground and I heard a massive snap when my leg came back to me.
It was a horrific feeling and it was all a massive blur from then on.
The physio came on, the stretcher came on and I had gas and air.
I was panicking because we had had three other serious knee injuries already this season but I knew at that moment it was going to be bad.”
In my head I was panicking and it was a long journey home from Sunderland back to Billericay, it was horrific.
I was thinking ‘I’ve got six months on my deal left, what am I going to do?’, I’m going to be without a club and my knee is going to be knackered.
I got home, saw the missus and cried again but everyone has been great towards me.
Coker has started a YouTube channel to document his long recovery from the serious injury, which you can check out below.