When Pitso Mosimane signed Rivaldo Coetzee in August he had hopes of making him the main man on the left side of the Mamelodi Sundowns central defence.
The Sundowns coach had been impressed by the Kakamas-born player, having seen him don the Bafana Bafana jersey at the age of 17 years and 361 days.
So eager was Mosimane to get Coetzee's signature that he promptly tied him to a three-year deal on the deadline day of the transfer window period in August. That was despite the player having failed a medical test at the Scottish giants Celtic for an injury to his right foot.
At the time of his signing it was reported that Sundowns forked out R10-million to his former club, Ajax Cape Town, where he had made just under 100 appearances following his professional debut in 2014.
This week, however, Mosimane spoke of his agony in seeing the 21-year-old defender not healing from his foot injury, eight months into his tenure at Sundowns.
Towards the end of last year Mosimane had expressed hope for Coetzee making his debut, but such has been the player and club's frustrations with the nature of his injury that there has been no talk of him taking the field any time soon."He's still on the medicals. If we hide his situation we will hide until when?" asked Mosimane.
"It's a sad case because he is a youngster that I thought will fill the left side of our central defence because Ricardo Nascimento is 32 years old now.
"This guy [Coetzee] is 21 and has played for Bafana so many games. There was never ever a situation of a doubt that this boy is a good footballer and will fit in the way we play."
Mosimane described Coetzee's foot injury as "complicated".
"The doctor says the blood is not flowing into a certain area in his foot. For him to heal, the blood has to flow properly. We spoke to our specialists here and they are consulting even overseas about this type of injury.
"I'm prepared to wait even if he can go six or four months away getting medical help because he's still young. I'm still hopeful Rivaldo will recover and play football. But it's been very difficult to motivate him to stay positive while going through this ordeal."
Sundowns doctor Carl Tabane declined to comment on Coetzee's injury citing permission from the club even though Mosimane had said there was nothing to hide.
The club also refused to let the player talk about his injury this week.
Corridor talk at Sundowns suggests that the club may be forced to find a settlement to release him from his contract if the player does not recover soon. Mosimane may also have to go back to the market for a defender in Coetzee's mould...