Rugby legend Collins Injera has no regrets over being vocal about off-pitch issues during his playing time in the National sevens team Shujaa, although his voice got him into trouble a couple of times.
Speaking to one of the local televisions here in Kenya, Injera who was doing his first media appearance since announcing his retirement said he was concerned about fellow players’ plight and thus could not shy from calling out management over various issues.
This however did not stop him to shine whenever he wore the Shujaa shirt.
“It’s just one of those things that as a player you like championing player’s rights and welfare and then you get sidelined. You’re being identified as the guy who causes trouble but essentially it’s not trouble, it’s just asking those tough questions.
” Like I said; it’s all about honest conversations because if you don’t have them, who else will? I don’t think I would change it, if I was to turn back time I think I would still do it the same.”
Injera shed more light on what really transpired in Paris in 2018, when Shujaa covered the “Make it Kenya” logo of the then seven’s sponsor Brand Kenya.
“Honestly 2018 was sad. How the whole situation was handled wasn’t great and I’ve always said it wasn’t great from the management and how we as the player’s side reacted to it. It comes down to communication; those honest conversations.
“You see once when you promise the players this is going to happen, and then it doesn’t happen and you give another flimsy excuse, the players just got tired of it.”
Kenya’s top try scorer and 2nd in the World Sevens series says it was a team decision to blank out the sponsor’s name, a move that saw the multi-million shilling partnership eventually cancelled.
“What happened wasn’t down to one individual. The players were meant to think the sponsor was the problem in that they hadn’t sent the player’s allowances. So the guys asked themselves, if the sponsor is the problem then why are we still wearing their brand?
“So I said if it’s a team call, let’s go ahead with it. It all comes down to communication because believe it or not, we won the Singapore Sevens without signing a contract but the team manager was honest with us,” he narrated.
Injera retired from the game last month having had a stellar career spanning 17 years with 279 tries in the World Sevens Series, only second to Briton Dan Norton.
