Mamelodi Sundowns striker Etiosa Ighodaro has been given stern advice about the need to avoid becoming a mere loan player.
Ighodaro spent the 2022/23 season on loan at Chippa United where he scored 11 goals in all competitions and finished as one of six strikers in the DStv Premiership with double figures.
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The 22-year has now moved back to Sundowns where he still has a running contract but is now set to be used in a deal that will have Thapelo Maseko moving across from SuperSport United.
Ighodaro has also previously been on loan at University of Pretoria and has his back on the ropes again at Chloorkop due to foreign quota issues.
Sundowns have resisted the temptation to cash in on Ighodaro despite having never used him in the first team since they brought him into their books with offers from Serbian clubs Partizan Belgrade and Novi Pazar turned down.
"I don't think it is good for his career that he has to be always going on loan because he runs the risk of ending up nowhere," says fellow Nigerian Prince Olomu.
Olomu is now retired and played for Enyimba, Bloemfontein Celtic, Free State Stars, and Maritzburg United through the better years of his career which ended a decade ago before he even turned 30.
"I feel like Sundowns is playing around with the boy's emotions because every season he has to be moving around.
"The boy will never be settled at one club and grow himself into prominence when he is just being moved around like this.
"With the way this whole thing is happening there will come a time when the boy has to force his way out or another club does it for him so that he leaves Sundowns.
"The boy is living on the edge.
"To be always going out on loan is a dangerous game because we don't even know what kind of contract he has at Sundowns.
"What if the boy gets injured on loan and it is discovered that it was the last season on his contract and they don't renew?
"The next season should be the last that the boy gets to have away on loan.
"It is a dangerous thing to do in your career to be always going out on loan like this.
"The boy is at risk of ruining his career at Sundowns and could end up with a career that is destroyed and goes down the drain.
"There will not be any need for another loan after this season.
"Sundowns must make up their minds about this boy.
"You can't be going on loan for three years in a row.
"When such happens, it shows something is not right somewhere somehow," says Olomu.
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