Sunil Chhetri ruled out of crucial friendlies following injury

Sunil Chhetri would not be heading the Indian national squad training in Pune on March 10 owing to a handful of minor injuries.

Sunil Chhetri, India’s legendary football forward and captain, has just been forced out from the two international friendly matches versus Bahrain and Belarus in Manama later in the month because of “a few injuries” that demand “time to cure.”

Due to Covid-19, the Indian captain skipped 2 friendlies in 2021 against Oman and the UAE. In June, he made a return in the 2022 World Cup/2023 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, enabling India to progress to the third round of Asian Cup qualification.

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Chhetri also was pivotal in India’s SAFF Championship victory in October 2021, netting five goals in five matches. He is now certain to miss the Blue Tigers’ two friendlies facing Bahrain and Belarus on March 23 and 26, accordingly.

The Indian Football Team captain expressed misfortune and said that he was waiting for the friendly fixtures against Bahrain and Belarus but unfortunately he is forced to miss both the games. Chhetri told following a lengthy and difficult football season, he faced some injuries that will take some time to recover. “I will be doing all I can to recover in time for the predatory camp in May,”, Chhetri said to AIFF as posted on their official website.

There is still ambiguity as to whether India will encounter Belarus, as the AIFF claimed on Tuesday that it was seeking to “avoid” competing against the east European country that had backed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
FIFA has banned Russia but has not yet issued any measures against Belarus.
UEFA, the European football ruling body, outlawed Belarus from holding international games last week, but this will have no bearing on India’s international friendly.