Jele renews Pirates contract
Happy Jele has renewed his contract at Orlando Pirates in what is a welcome piece of good news for a player who has had a miserable last year out with injury.
Jele is on his way back to action after being sidelined for almost 12 months and the vote of confidence will come as an added boost.
The new deal will keep him at the club until 2015, a brief statement from Pirates said on Monday.
The signing was concluded on Monday morning, it added.
Last month Pirates said Jele had recovered from his career-threatening knee injury only to suffer a quadricep strain in training a few weeks ago, just as he was working his way back into contention for a return to action.
Jele was the first choice right back for the champions before his injury and had also broken through into the national team squad.
He suffered the injury against Bidvest Wits at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit in November last year, after a 75th minute collision with Siboniso Gumede.
He underwent surgery in December, having to wait first for the swelling to go down. He then had to wear a brace for several months to keep the knee in place.
The club have since bought Patrick Phungwayo from Wits as cover for his position, with the likes of Bheki Nzunga, Lucky Lekgwathi and Thabo Matlaba having also filled in on the right hand side of defence.
The 26-year-old Jele has been at Pirates for seven seasons and scored five times in 123 league and cup starts.
