Despite the mid-field being a problem area, coach Sukhwinder Singh feels that all the issues are under control
By Micky Aigner
Now, that's even when the concern is with regard to players available for selection ahead of the AFC Challenge Cup in Sri Lanka scheduled later this month.
So how is the camp coming along? And the coach offers no more than, "good... all Ok." But then further scrutiny reveals that even after four days the 29 probables have not totally grouped at the Bharati Vidyapeeth ground, Katraj.
While it is learnt that defenders Rowlinson Rodrigues, Th. Naoba Singh and Robert Lalthlamuana — who did duty for Churchill Brothers at the AFC Champions League qualifiers at Abu Dhabi - are expected to report on Wednesday, the bigger news is the fact that first choice goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya will not come to the city but instead will head to Dubai and join the senior National team.
As Sukhwinder put it, "he (Arindam) has been directed by the National body (AIFF) to go as a cover-up for Subrata Paul." It is given to understand that Paul is recovering from a torn muscle, which he injured during the I-League while playing for Pune FC against Mahindra United.
Arindam's new duty, thus makes up a total of three absentees, which includes defenders N Mohanraj and Raju Eknath Gaikwad who never turned up. Incidentally, Gaikwad was injured during the South Asian Federation Games in Bangladesh and was supposed to group at the camp along six others — Jeje Lalpekula, Larindika Ralte, Subodh Kumar, Gurpreet Sandhu, Jewel Raja Shaikh on Tuesday.
And as if the pool of players is reduced, the injuries to mid-fielders Manish Mathani and Baljit Saini has thus forced Sukhwinder to call in PFC's Godwin Franco at the last minute.
Both Mathani and Saini are currently in the camp, but Sukhwinder categorically ruled them out saying, "medical experts say they are not tournament fit." More so, Jagpreet Singh — a midfielder himself who was part of the Indian squad that won the SAFF Cup at Dhaka this year - was operated for a ligament tear and thus the onus was on the coach to have 'specialist players' for the central midfielder position.
It is with that view in mind that Godwin was summoned and thus laid to rest quite a bit of speculations as to why the Goan was included at the last minute. "We had to do something for the position and thus conveyed the need to AIFF," Sukhwinder added.
In doing so the Indian coach is currently left with a task of needing to exclude three players from the available 25 'fit' players. The question is who makes the team?
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