In this edition of My Welcome To The League Moment, KickOff catches up with former Black Leopards striker David Zulu.
The former Chiefs and Chippa United man reveal how Mbulelo "Old-John" Mabizela and Paulos Masehe welcomed him to the Premier Soccer League.
READ | 'All they saw was my bum'
"My welcome to the league moment happened during a friendly we played against Mpumalanga Black Aces, I was still at Black Leopards at the time," Zulu tells KickOff.
"That Mpumalanga Black Aces team had Mbulelo Old-John Mabizela in their team; I have never been punched with so many fists in my life. My whole body was in pain that day.
"I tried to reason with him telling him to stop what he was doing, but his response would be, Hey wena son voetsek voetsek voetsek la eduze kwami, suka la, in a calm voice.
"I tried to move away from him; I moved to the other side...Haawu...again Guuu!! Another punch on my back.
"I turned my back to look...eish it's Mabizela again. I looked at him, and again, he said to me, I told you to get out of my way. Suka la!
"I said to him, hey man, it's only a pre-season friendly. Why are you acting like this? Guuu! Another punch.
"I ended up saying unprintable words to him, and he was also insulting me...hey, but that didn't help much; he kept following me around, and he never stopped punching. I was his punching bag the whole match.
"I looked at the referee, asking him to protect me, but you will not believe what the referee said to me. He said, I didn't see anything of that sort. I'm only focusing on where there is football, so let's continue playing.
"Immediately after that, another punch landed on the back of my neck. You know, the painful and funny thing is that neither my teammates nor the referee noticed what was happening to me. I was in deep shit, alone.
"I ended up playing far from Mabizela, near the center line. I was not happy with what I went through that day. I was roaming around the pitch avoiding the centre-forward position.
"Professional football is not easy man, you will find guys like Paulos Masehe who would breathe on the back of your neck the whole match while telling you 'Don't run, don't run come here don't run' [laughs]'.
"But the funny thing is after the game everything is forgiven."