The Mbabane Highlanders striker Mfanufikile Ndzimandze has urged angry fans to return the boots he lost after Swaziland's most successful club slumped to their worst defeat in 22 years on Sunday.
Ndzimandze lost the boots while being chased by enraged supporters to the club's mini-bus after the 5-1 defeat to Malanti Chiefs, the Times of Swaziland reported.
The player said fans confiscating his footwear would not solve the problems around the team's current struggles.
"I lost the boots as we were running to the kombi because some of the fans wanted to beat us up," he told the newspaper.
"That things are not going well is clear but it is not for us players to sort them out but our leaders."
Highlanders have won more league titles than any other club in the country, but their last championship success was a decade ago.
Sunday's defeat left them one place above the relegation zone in the league standings with seven points from their first nine games of the new season.