Sundowns axe Rashid Sumaila from their league squad

Ghana defender Rashid Sumaila will not play competitive football in South Africa at least until January as his club Mamelodi Sundowns have decided to drop him from their squad for the Premier League this season.

Sumaila remains stuck at Chloorkop after failing to clinch a move away from Sundowns following the club’s decision to de-register him from their list of PSL players.

The revelation will damage his chances of returning to the Ghana squad as he was excluded from the squad to play Uganda and Togo even though he was part of the World Cup squad.

With the transfer deadline elapsing and the former Kotoko defender failing to secure a proposed move to the Turkish top-flight, Sumaila will have to contend himself with just training in the gym which will make his lose his sharpness.

Sumaila had been linked with a move to Turkey during the off-season window but a transfer failed to materialise.

This means the big defender will not be able to play for Sundowns this season as the club has already exhausted its foreign quota, and the 21-year-old will only be able to move anywhere during the January transfer window.

The Black Stars centre-back is not happy to just be picking up a salary from Mamelodi Sundowns after the realisation that he cannot play any football until January.

He will now have to contend with merely coming to Chloorkop for a gym session just so that he keeps on earning his salary and joins Hichani Himoonde, Method Mwanjali and Nyasha Mushekwi who are all stuck at the club.

“Rashid is really devastated at the moment as he is forced with being just someone who is not even in the plans. It is really depressing to just be going to Chloorkop for him and of late he has also struggled with an injury,” says a source.

“You cannot be happy earning a salary at the end of the month when you are not doing anything because it is your career that is suffering when all this is happening.

“He had high hopes, especially after making the cut for the World Cup squad. Even though the monthly salary is guaranteed at the end of the month, none of these guys are enjoying what is happening.”

With Sumaila out of the reckoning at Sundowns, he has also lost his place in the Ghana squad after being dropped for the two 2015 African Nations Cup qualifiers against Uganda and Togo.