KARACHI: National footballers will start their preparatory campaign for the tour of Palestine on Saturday (today) at the Punjab Football Stadium in Lahore.
Around ten players including Farooq Shah, Adam, Mohammad Omar, Aamir Gul, Alamgir Khan, Saqib Hanif, Mehmood Khan, Ansar Abbas, Waseem Cheena and Faisal had reported for the camp till Friday evening while the rest of the players of the 46-man camp were on the way.
“Around ten players have reported the rest of the lot are on the way and hopefully all of them will be available for training tomorrow,” one of the coaches of the support staff told ‘The News’ from Lahore on Friday.
The coach said that young goalkeeper Ihsanullah from Karachi Port Trust (KPT) has sent his medical certificate as he has a knee injury and will not be available for the camp while KRL right-back Ihsanullah and striker Kaleemullah are also injured as per the KRL manager and their availability for the camp is also in doubt.
“We will try to start training tomorrow morning,” the coach said. All the support staff including Nasir Ismail, Shehzad Anwar, Gohar Zaman and goalkeeping coach Aslam Khan have reached Lahore while head coach Tariq Lutfi will join them in a day or two.
The support staff is also attending AID-27 Coaching Refresher Course at the FIFA Football House in the Punjab capital. However, they will be exempted after the start of the camp.
Pakistan are scheduled to tour Palestine on May 22 to play their remaining two matches of the four-match series on May 24 and 27 at Faisal Al-Husseini International Stadium, near Ramallah.