SA football gloom as Wiseman Meyiwa left disabled after crash

YESTERDAY was a gloomy day for South African football.

Kaizer Chiefs manager Bobby Motaung confirmed the devastating news of the early retirement of Wiseman Meyiwa following a motor accident that left him wheelchair-bound.

Meyiwa was involved in a horrific car crash last November 3 near Villiers, Free State, on his way to visit his family in Pietermaritzburg, in KwaZulu-Natal.

Speaking at an emotional press conference yesterday at the Kaizer Chiefs Village, Motaung said they had to pull out all stops to try to remedy Meyiwa’s critical condition but there was too little the doctors could do. “We are here today (yesterday) to formally announce the sad news about one of our players - Wiseman Meyiwa - in terms of his ended career in football,”Motaung said.

During his initial medical intervention at Netcare Union hospital, there were scans of fractured bones in thoracic vertebrae, while it was later discovered that he had suffered major injuries in his spinal cord. Attempts to stabilise the swelling from his spinal cord didn’t go according to plan. That resulted in him being diagnosed as a T6-paraplegic.

Meyiwa, 19, played in two junior World Cups - Under-17 and U20.