Matthew Rusike suffered his second relegation in consecutive years – and the third of his career – this past weekend.

Rusike’s Swedish club Helsingborgs IF fell from the top-flight Allsvenskan to the second-tier Superettan after losing 3-2 on aggregate to Halmstads BK in the relegation play-off.

Sweden’s relegation play-off pits the club that finishes 14th in the top tier (Helsingborgs) against the team that ends up third (Halmstads) in the second tier.

Ironically Halmstads is the team Rusike played for when they were relegated from top-flight football last year, after which he joined Helsingborgs.

Rusike was previously relegated while in the South African PSL with Jomo Cosmos during the 2011/12 season.

This means the burly forward has now been demoted with three clubs during a career that has also seen him win the Absa Premiership title with Kaizer Chiefs, whom he joined after leaving Cosmos.

The 26-year-old only joined Helsingborgs at the beginning of the year and though he played regularly with 25 league appearances, he scored just three goals.

In the relegation play-offs he was only used as a late substitute in the second leg on Sunday after sitting on the bench for the whole game in the first leg, having arrived a day earlier from Zimbabwe where he had played in a friendly match against Tanzania on November 13 in Harare.