How Chiefs players reacted to Luke Fleurs' tragic death and honouring him in East London

This is how the Chiefs Sporting Director Kaizer Motaung Jnr described the difficult situation at the club’s village in Naturena, following the death of Fleurs who was shot dead during a car hijacking on Wednesday evening in Constantia Kloof, West of Johannesburg.

READ: Rulani Mokwena’s message to Luke Fleurs family and Kaizer Chiefs

Speaking on Radio 2000’s Game On Sport show with Thabiso Mosia, Motaung describes the reaction at the club.

''A very sad day, I'm shocked. It's sad for the football fraternity at large, we have heard of players losing their lives like this in the past, it hits us very hard,'' said Motaung.

Fleurs, a Bafana Bafana international and an Olympian at the time of his death, passed away at the age of 24.

He joined the club of his dreams Amakhosi towards the end of last year as a free agent from SuperSport United. Even during this difficult moment, Motaung reveals that the players decided that they will go ahead with training in remembrance of their fallen soldier.

''The players said they want to be out on the field in his memory, they are the ones who picked themselves up and said they want to go to training,'' added Motaung.

Fleurs was yet to play an official game for the club since joining in October last year but according to Motaung, he was very close to getting action.

Motaung reveals that he was set to make the traveling team to Chippa United this coming weekend to East London, sadly the cold-blooded criminals ended the young man’s dream.

Motaung has also confirmed that their game away to Chippa at the Buffalo City stadium in East London will go ahead tomorrow afternoon (15:00).

The expectation was that, given the state of shock and the gruesome killing of Fleurs, the club was going to ask for a postponement, but he says they are going ahead to honour their fallen teammate.

Fleurs was born in Mitchells Plain and moved to Fish Hoek after signing with Ubuntu Academy in 2013, a club he also represented in the National First Division (NFD).

He joined SuperSport United in 2018 until his last year. Fleurs was a member of the SA Olympic team at the Tokyo 2020 games.

His family is expected to arrive in Johannesburg today from Cape Town and that’s when the memorial and funeral details should be confirmed as Motaung confirms.

''We need to give the family some privacy, but we will do everything we can to help the family,'' he concluded.