KARACHI: The Pakistan football team on Tuesday got a shot in the arm ahead of the World Cup qualifiers when England-based midfielder Adnan Farooq Ahmed joined the training camp in Islamabad hours after his arrival in the federal capital, a team official told ‘The News’ on Tuesday.
“Yes, Adnan (Aboomoslem FC, Iran) arrived in the morning on Tuesday and he also did light training in the evening with the team,” coach Tariq Lutfi said. “He was looking fit and was feeling quite comfortable while running in hot conditions.”
Adnan will be fielded in a practice game against Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Wednesday (today). He will also have to pass through cooper test.
He said that defender Atif Bashir Qureshi (Barry Town Wales) will be reaching the country on Wednesday.
He said that defender Zeeshan Rehman is also expected to arrive one or two days before departure of the team for the qualifier. Pakistan will leave for Dhaka on June 26 to face Bangladesh in the away leg of the first round of the qualifiers on June 29 while the return leg will be held in Lahore on July 3.
Front-runner Arif Mehmood, who is suffering from a knee injury, has shown great improvement. He was also fielded by the coach for the last fifteen minutes in their practice match against Army on Monday which Pakistan won 5-0.
“Arif is improving with the passage of time. He was also fielded in the match against Army and also had some good shots on goal today,” Lutfi said.