'I used to eat six meals a day': Khune explains how marriage made him gain weight

Kaizer Chiefs and former Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune has explained how marriage made him gain weight and lose his number one spot.

Khune recently worked his way back into the Chiefs goalposts after struggling for game time over the past three Premier Soccer League (PSL) seasons.

While at some point that was because of injury, gaining a lot of weight also played a significant role in him being overlooked as goalkeepers such as Daniel Akpeyi, who has left the club, Bruce Bvuma and Brandon Peterson enjoyed game time.

“I think just after I got married, my wife was spoiling me at home. I would eat six meals a day,” Khune said.

“Every two minutes, she would ask me if I was fine. Do I want something? Without me realising I was agreeing to everything that she was offering (to me).

“I didn’t realise that I was gaining weight, but a lot of people could see that,” he said.

What made it hard for Khune to realise he was out of shape is that he would still perform the same way when he was training and convinced himself he was fine.

“But obviously the club has a structure that we use. When we do the body fat percentage, there’s a certain percentage that you need to be on when we do our weight checks,” Khune said.

“I was just focusing on my weight and I was told it fluctuates and it depends on the number of glasses or bottles of water that you drink because I drank a lot of water and sometimes I would be told it’s the water intake that makes the weight fluctuate.

“I wasn’t really focusing on my body fat percentage, but I can safely say now the programme worked and now I’m back to my normal self. I feel like I’m 12 years old because even the kit that I wear is looser than before when it used to be tight.”

Khune, who still harbours ambitions of returning to Bafana in the near future, was placed under a special programme by the club to help him lose weight.

And the 35-year-old has not looked shaky at all since returning to the goalposts for Chiefs.

“I feel great and I want to compete for the number one spot here at Kaizer Chiefs and hopefully get the call-up back to Bafana,” he said.

Khune and Amakhosi will be hoping for a change of fortunes when they face SuperSport United at FNB Stadium on Saturday (8pm).

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