Tunde Liadi
UNION Sportive Monastir attacker Tony Okpotu has asserted that his decision to put behind injury nightmare at his previous club was the reason for his impressive start to the Tunisian league season.
Okpotu left Lobi Stars for Moroccan side Difaa El Jadida after the 2018 CHAN held in Morocco but he copped a debilitating groin strain that kept him out of football for close five months after only two games for his new club.
The club became impatient with his on his return from the injury and had to be loaned out to an Albania side where he didn’t get playing time probably due to the nature of the injury he’d just recovered from.
Okpotu said he decided to move to a new club and a new league to enable him to return to his ebullient self again as he appended his signature for US Monastir.
His arrival coincided with other newly signed players including his Nigerian compatriot Moses Orkuma with whom they have both contributed immensely to the revival of the modest Tunisian side.
Okpotu has scored six goals in his nine league games for US Monastir including a brace last Saturday against US Tataouine in a 3-1 away win.
“I don’t really feel special that I scored two goals; I am just happy that my team won the game and that we remain on top of the league table in Tunisia,” Okpotu said in an interview from his base with NationSport. “It is true that before I and some few other players joined the club,US Monastir was just an average club that are satisfied with just remaining in the topflight.
” But a lot of good new signings that they made and the new coach that has coached in Austria before are really helping us.
“It is just about the mentality. We came and changed the mentality that we have what it takes to compete alongside the best team in Tunisia and it is the result we are seeing now.
“Things didn’t go well with Difaa in Morocco. After the CHAN I headed to Morocco but unfortunately for me I sustained a bad injury (groin tendon injury) that kept me out of football for almost five months. I took it as one of those things.
“In Albania, I didn’t get playing time as well after I got there on loan from Difaa but I know that I am a good player and I know that I have proved myself before .
“I told myself that if things didn’t work out well in Morocco, I needed another environment and with my change, things have improved tremendously. It is this self-belief that has brought me to what I am today,” he noted.
US Monastir are presently on top of the Tunisian League with 21 points from nine games and they will host CA Bizertin on Sunday in another league tie.
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