Player always looks left (default position), after movement stops.

Hi guys, I'm running a course via Udemy on building a 3D Platformer Game with Unity, and I've done every step throughout the course, but there is a small bug I'm trying to fix.

My character is being followed by the camera, and is moving where the camera faces. So far so good, however, when the movement stops, the character doesn't fully stop - he returns facing the default direction.

Can you please help me out, I'm sure it should be something very simple.

(putting the rotation inside of an IF statement, doesn't work. if(moveDirection != Vector3.zero))

 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using UnityEngine;
 
 public class PlayerController : MonoBehaviour
 {
 
     public static PlayerController instance;
 
     public float moveSpeed;
     public float jumpForce;
     public float gravityScale = 5f;
 
     private Vector3 moveDirection;
 
     public CharacterController charController;
 
     private Camera theCam;
 
     public GameObject playerModel;
     public float rotateSpeed;
     public Animator anim;
 
     private void Awake()
     {
         instance = this;
     }
 
     // Start is called before the first frame update
     void Start()
     {
         theCam = Camera.main;
     }
 
     // Update is called once per frame
     void Update()
     {
         float yStore = moveDirection.y;
         //moveDirection = new Vector3(Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal"), 0f, Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical"));
         moveDirection = (transform.forward * Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical")) + (transform.right * Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal"));
         moveDirection.Normalize();
         moveDirection = moveDirection * moveSpeed;
         moveDirection.y = yStore;
 
         if(charController.isGrounded)
         {
             
 
             if(Input.GetButtonDown("Jump"))
             {
                 moveDirection.y = jumpForce;
             }
         }
         moveDirection.y += Physics.gravity.y * Time.deltaTime * gravityScale;
 
         //transform.position += (moveDirection * Time.deltaTime * moveSpeed);
 
         charController.Move(moveDirection * Time.deltaTime);
 
         if(moveDirection != Vector3.zero) 
         { 
 
         if (Input.GetAxisRaw("Horizontal") != 0 || Input.GetAxisRaw("Vertical") != 0 ) ;
         {
             transform.rotation = Quaternion.Euler(0f, theCam.transform.rotation.eulerAngles.y, 0f);
             Quaternion newRotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(new Vector3(moveDirection.x, 0f, moveDirection.z));
             //playerModel.transform.rotation = newRotation;
             //Quaternion newRotation = Quaternion.LookRotation(Vector3.forward, Vector3.up);
             playerModel.transform.rotation = Quaternion.Slerp(playerModel.transform.rotation, newRotation, rotateSpeed * Time.deltaTime);
            
 
         }
 
         }
 
         anim.SetFloat("Speed", Mathf.Abs(moveDirection.x) + Mathf.Abs(moveDirection.z));
         anim.SetBool("Grounded", charController.isGrounded);
     }
 
 
 }
 

Appreciate it!