The squad for the India U-23 team going to the SAFF Cup was announced on Monday. Coach Sukhwinder Singh announced the final set of players heading to Dhaka, Bangladesh and five players have failed to make the final cut.
The five players who haven't made the squad are: Karanjit Singh, Subhash Singh, Lalrindrika, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, and Raju.
Out of the five mentioned above, Karanjit Singh and Subhash Singh have been asked to join the senior national camp.
It was in late October that a 24 member squad was announced for the India U-23 camp and thereafter, following injuries to certain key players in the senior national team coupled with Dempo's flat refusal to release two players, three players, namely Rakesh Masih, Govin Singh and N.Mohanraj, were asked to join Bob Houghton's boys.
To fill the space left by their exit, three India U-19 players - Jeje Lalpekhlua, Lalrindrika Ralte, and Subodh Kumar were summoned to the squad.
This wasn't it as Baljit Sahni suffered multiple injuries following a motorbike accident while Viva Kerala's Sabeeth has been out for a long time due to his injury. D.Ravanan and Manish Maithani, who impressed with Mahindra and Mohun Bagan respectively received their first national call-ups.
Final Squad:
Goalkeepers: Arindam Bhattacharya (Churchill Brothers), Laxmikant Kattimani (Dempo)
Defenders: Denzil Franco and D.Ravanan (Mahindra United), Nirmal Chettri (East Bengal), Naoba Singh, Rowilson Rodrigues, Robert Lalthalma (Churchill Brothers), Ravinder Singh (Air India)
Midfielders: Jagpreet Singh, Baldip Singh (JCT), Manish Maithani (Mohun Bagan) Jibon Singh (East Bengal), Jewel Raja, Joaquim Abranches (Dempo SC)
Forwards Balwant Singh (JCT), Sushil Kumar Singh (Mahindra United), Jagtar Singh (TFA), Jeje Lalpeklua (Pune FC)
Source: Goal.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 1 December 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.