Former Hearts of Oak skipper Mahatma Otoo has urged all phobians to forgive former teammate Thomas Abbey for his disparaging comments he made about the cause of the club's embarrassing 3-1 defeat in the 2017 MTN FA Cup final against sworn enemies Asante Kotoko.

This follows revelations he made on Thursday about the cause of Hearts of Oak's 3-1 defeat against Asante Kotoko in the 2017 MTN FA Cup finals in Tamale.

Three first half goals from Saddick Adams condemned the phobians to defeat and the then club captain said that they were owed winning bonuses and salary arrears which heavily weighed on the team as most of the playing staff at the time were set to leave on a free transfer.

His comments was in bad taste to most of his former teammates who hit back at their former captain for disgracing them and the club with lies with the likes of Samudeen Ibrahim,Winful Cobbina and Vincent Atinga all livid.

Perhaps after pressure mounting on the ex-captain from teammates and from the club he has come out to apologize and says his comments were not intended to create any disharmony and disaffection

Mahatma Otoo who now plays in the lower tier leagues in Turkey has come to the defence of his former teammate calling on the phobian fraternity to forgive and accept Abbey's apology.

"I have had the opportunity to listen to the interview made by Thomas Abbey on Anwar U. Larry wall. Immediately after listening to the interview, I called Abbey and we had a long talk."

"I would like to use this platform to render an unqualified apology to the entire Accra Hearts of Oak fraternity on behalf of Thomas Abbey. I can assure the entire Hearts family that after the telephone conversation I had with him, it wasn’t his intention to dent the image of the club and he feels really sorry. And I urge all Phobians to find a place in your hearts to forgive our brother Abbey."

"My advice to my fellow colleagues (footballers) is that we should all be very careful about what we say during interviews because everyone has his own way of interpretation. You might mean something but it could come out as something totally different."

"To the players who took to social media or made interviews because of what Abbey said, I feel you should have got in touch with him first. Whatever you hear, please confirm first before you react. Because today, it is Abbey. Tomorrow, it could be you or me."

"Once again Phobians, I urge we all to come together and deal with issues like a family. Please accept Abbey’s apology ..... To err is human, to forgive is divine."

Thank you.

With Love,

Mahatma Otoo.

#OnceAPhobianAlwaysAPhobian ??