Oluoch was feared to have been phased out of the club after not featuring since February
Gor Mahia head coach Mark Harrison has come out to explain the reasoning that led to the inclusion of long-serving goalkeeper Boniface Oluoch back to the team’s matchday squad after more than eight months out of action for the custodian.
In matchday five that took place on 3 November against Ulinzi Stars, Oluoch was surprisingly included in the team sheet, albeit on the substitute’s bench, for the first time since his last involvement with the team back in February.
In that last match, Oluoch is infamously remembered for wreaking havoc at a crucial CAF Confederation Cup match against Napsa Stars where, together with the departed Kenneth Muguna, he roughed up a match official for awarding a contentious penalty to the home side that ended up denying Gor Mahia a chance of making it to the group stages of the continental tournament.
Since then, the player never featured till his first involvement that would come eight months later leading to rumors that the goalkeeper had been phased out of the club under unclear circumstances as other reports suggested that he was thrown out alongside former Gor keeper trainer Willis Ochieng’.
Despite ending up not featuring in the game that resulted in a barren stalemate, Harrrison quashed the false reports as he explained why Oluoch earned the recall. The head coach went ahead to laud the custodian’s everyday attitude in training.
“Boniface has been working like a real professional. Every day he has been at training and he never misses at all. I just felt it is a good time for him to get a feel of the action and that is why we involved him,” the head coach revealed.
This season, should he make it back to the starting eleven, Oluoch will have to fend off challenge from the preferred Gad Mathews and Malian international Adama Keita who have been used in the team matches thus far.