'Not China, focus on B'desh and Myanmar'

Igor Stimac, head coach of the Indian men's football team headed for the Hangzhou Asian Games, shot back smiling with a question of his own to a question during his pre-departure press conference regarding the morale in the camp.

- Rutvick Mehta

"Which morale and in which camp?" Stimac asked.

The Croatian coach was speaking on Sunday afternoon, hours before he was to meet his players assembling at the Delhi airport for a 10pm flight to Hong Kong. After a "5-6 hour" transit, the squad will touch down in Hangzhou "around 5pm on Monday. They play China on Tuesday, without a single training session together.

"From requesting more time for preparation, we came to a point where we need to be happy where we get the players just before kickoff," Stimac said.

And they are not even players the Croatian wanted in the first place. From the "first list of 50 players provided more than four months ago" and after changing it multiple times, the coach has at his disposal Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhingan among his prominent first-choice picks for the squad but most others whom "I'll meet for the first time".

Jhingan-along with Chinglensana Singh and Lalchungnungawere late additions on Friday to the squad that was changed several times over the last few days amid last-minute negotiations between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Indian Super League (ISL) clubs unwilling to release players with the league starting on Thursday.