There is no doubt that sustaining an injury can be one of the most horrifying experience for any player in this highly competitive game of football. It gets worse when you don’t get the needed support to aid your path to recovery especially in this part of the world where injuries end many careers even before they start.

But for former Gor Mahia forward Paul Mungai Kiongera, he can count his lucky stars for his club Simba SC of Tanzania did not abandon him at his hour of need.

“I feel very happy that this club chose to honor my contract even though I got injured so early into it, and now I just want to prove that I am still a top quality player,” Kiongera was quoted by KPL.co.ke.

Kiongera signed for “Wekundu wa Simanzi” at the beginning of the 2014 season under his former Coach at Gor Mahia Zdravo Logarusic, but he sustained a knee injury barely three months into his contract and he had to go for a surgery in India. This kept him out of action for the remainder of the season.

Simba then loaned him back to KCB to help him get back to shape, and after a good 2015 season where he netted 11 goals for the Bankers despite the team being relegated, Kiongera returned to Simba on Friday 4.

“I have only about six months of my contract left for me to impress, and I just pray that I will be successful,”

He hopes to get a long well with the new Simba coach Dylan Kerr, “I don’t him so well but I know we shall get along well. What is important for me is to make an impact for the entire club. That is my prayer.”

The Kenyatta University alumnus was recently nominated in the Comeback of the year category of the 2015 Sportsperson of the Year Awards (SOYA). He was also voted the Fans’ Players for the month of August.

@bonfaceosano