Dangerous Turf Claims Skipper !

The Kerala team preparing for the 68th Santosh Trophy national football championship suffered a major blow as Rahul P, captain of the team that finished runners-up last year, was forced to drop out of the camp due to a major injury. The culprit? The almost unplayable ground − “very hard”, as termed by head coach AM Sreedharan − at their training base in Thiruvananthapuram.

“Missing Rahul is a real disappointment for me as well as the team. He was supposed to be central to the team this year,” said Sreedharan of the playmaker. Rahul sustained the ankle injury at the LNCPE Ground where the team had been practising for the past month.

“Playing at such a hard ground is a risk, but there is no other ground that is better than the one at LNCPE. So we were left with no option,” said Sreedharan, former FC Kochin and Viva Kerala coach.

The players echoed similar sentiments. “The accommodation and other facilities at the LNCPE are of top quality. But the ground is very dry and tough to train on,” Surjith VV, Kerala’s vice-captain last year, said.

Kerala, who are hoping to go one better and lift the trophy at Siliguri, West Bengal, have had to face more than one hurdle this time.

The squad that was called back by the Kerala Football Association to train at the Jawaharlal Nehru International Stadium here to acclimatise to the conditions in Chennai, where the preliminary matches are slated to be held, is now finding it hard to get enough time at the JNS. “The stadium is booked for the Federation Cup teams and we are training at noon in the heat,” said Sreedharan.

TNIE