Downs coach Rulani Mokwena and Kermit Erasmus make peace

Downs coach Rulani Mokwena and Kermit Erasmus make peace

Rulani Mokwena and Orlando Pirates striker Kermit Erasmus have made peace and that should be the end of the issue, according to the Sundowns mentor.

Mokwena and Erasmus have been involved in a feud since the striker scored against Sundowns and the coach took exception to the way he celebrated.

As is the case with most issues in sport, it appeared to get blown way out of proportion by the media and Rulani revealed that he and Erasmus were able to bury the hatchet in private.

“To end it all, we exchanged texts yesterday, we spoke about and I think for me it’s not just an isolated incident," Mokwena said on Marawa Sport Worldwide.

"There does seem to be a bit more from the goal celebration to the interview and now to this. And then of course like I said to him even at the end of our conversation ‘love and light! I wish you love and light.

“Because we should also never forget that at times we dehumanise athletes and we dehumanise coaches and we look at people and we think they don’t have emotions, they don’t have heart, they don’t have things that are troubling them.

“And Kermit to be fair has gone through a lot over the last year or so and things shouldn’t really be blown out of proportion and we should look to assist these players, because at times they act out of themselves but only because maybe they have certain emotional traumas, if you want to call it that, that they themselves are also still struggling with.

“When you look at the sequence of events that I’ve just spoken about they lead to telling you it’s not even personal for me, it’s not a Kermit vs Rulani issue. I just happened to be a coach that got very upset on behalf of his player because nowhere I’m going to be on the touchline and I’m going to get one of my players [injured]."