Pandita suffered a hamstring injury at the start of the tournament and has been training separately from the group ever since, missing all three matches against Mongolia, Vanuatu and Lebanon.
Coach Stimac felt that missing out on Pandita cost them goals as India scored three goals in three games while playing a draw against Lebanon last Thursday. “I feel sorry that we had trouble with Pandita,” said coach Stimac at the pre-match press conference on Saturday (June 17).
“I had a lot of expectations from him but in the second week of the training session, he clashed with Sandesh and he pulled his muscle in a way that we didn’t want to risk him. He could have been a great asset for us here in the sense of scoring, maybe coming into the game in certain situations.
“But we are not going to risk him. For a hamstring injury to heal, it takes a minimum of four weeks because if the injury recurs then he will be out for two months,” the Croatian said on the eve of the final against Lebanon.
The coach further added that there won’t be a replacement of Ishan Pandita in the team as well while two further unnamed players won’t be joining them in Bengaluru as well, leaving India with 23 members for the SAFF Championship.
“We have 26 players in Bhubaneswar and we can’t add any other players to the squad because the rest of them are on holiday (due to the off-season). Players in the squad are working hard for weeks now while others are enjoying their life. So it’s not possible to call for reinforcement,” said Stimac.
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