Igamane: Clearing the Air

As the coach who worked with Igamane on his return, I’ll be blunt — he didn’t come back late or overweight. He’d been told he could look elsewhere, trained alone and was a few weeks behind fitness-wise.

Let me start simple: I was the coach working with Igamane when he came back, and the narrative that he returned late and overweight isn’t accurate. He’d been told in the post-season that Martin didn’t want him, was free to find another club and didn’t need to report for preseason — then the club brought him back after other players had already reported.

The preseason story

That sequence matters. Being told you can leave and then suddenly being recalled leaves you in an odd place mentally and physically. It’s not an excuse, more an explanation of context. He’d been preparing alone, trying to look after himself away from the structured sessions at Ibrox. When he returned he wasn’t carrying extra weight; he’d done a decent job on his own, which surprised a few of us in a good way.

Fitness: a few weeks behind, not ruined

To be fair, he was a few weeks behind the squad in sharpness. That’s obvious — you can’t replicate team sessions and intensity entirely solo. Martin called that out repeatedly, and rightly so from a manager’s point of view. But being behind in fitness and being overweight are not the same thing. He needed time to catch up; that’s what preseason is for. I saw the work he was doing, and it wasn’t the picture some people painted.

On the substitute incident and how it reads

We’ve gone over the reasons why he refused to come on as a sub. I personally think there was an element of orchestration there from Martin, but that’s my view from inside. Others will disagree, and they’re entitled to. The important point is this: the simple claim that he turned up late and out of shape? That isn’t how I saw it. He came back when recalled and, for someone who’d been training alone, he was in reasonable condition.

Ultimately this isn’t about piling in on individuals. It’s about being honest about what actually happened and giving the lad — and the manager’s methods — a fair crack of the whip when assessing the situation.

Written by EHL2020: 9 June 2026