{"id":15483,"date":"2019-12-17T13:42:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-17T13:42:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/?p=15483"},"modified":"2019-12-17T13:43:11","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T13:43:11","slug":"philemon-otieno-to-return-in-january","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/philemon-otieno-to-return-in-january\/","title":{"rendered":"Philemon Otieno to return in January"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/gormahia.net\/images\/philemon-stars.jpg\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" \/><br \/>\nGor Mahia fullback Philemon Otieno, who underwent surgery earlier this year, is set to return to football in January<\/p>\n<p>Additional reporting from the Nation.<\/p>\n<p>Otieno, who picked an anterior cruciate ligament injury while playing for Harambee Stars in a Africa Nations Championship (Chan) qualifier against Tanzania in August, had already begun training with the team before the ongoing strike started. He now trains alone and attends gym sessions with his physiotherapist.<\/p>\n<p>The Kenyan international told Nation Sport that he is eager to return to the pitch since his rehabilitation is almost done.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;m on the recovery path and it is almost done. I will be ready to play for Gor Mahia in January since I had been training with the team before the strike but now I&#8217;m continuing on my own. It has been a long time and I&#8217;m yearning to be back to play football,\u201d said Otieno.<\/p>\n<p>The K\u2019Ogalo right back, who can also play in midfield, says he holds no grudge against Gor Mahia or Football Kenya Federation concerning the tirade that surrounded his treatment which forced him to turn back to his family and friends to raise money for his knee surgery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a tough time but I don\u2019t want to talk about it because I&#8217;m focused on reviving my career. Issues will always arise in football but that doesn\u2019t mean I lose hope and abandon my talent. I have a passion for the game and my focus is to help Gor Mahia bag the Kenya Premier League title,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On the unending crisis at Gor Mahia concerning salary arrears, Otieno urged the players and the club hierarchy to reach a consensus so that everyone in the club can pull in one direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can\u2019t say much on what has been transpiring in the team because I have not been on the pitch. However, we need to move forward as a team and I believe the situation will change and all issues will be sorted out,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Gor Mahia players are still on strike with the champions set to play Kisumu All Stars on December<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/news\/philemon-otieno-to-return-in-january\/\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground:  !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 100% !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gor Mahia fullback Philemon Otieno, who underwent surgery earlier this year, is set to return to football in January Additional<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[134,581],"class_list":["post-15483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-gor-mahia-players","tag-philemon-otieno"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15483"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15485,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15483\/revisions\/15485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gormahia.net\/latest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}