Constantine calls thirteen U-23 players to join camp ahead of China friendly

Thirteen Under-23 players, who were part of the Indian squad in the SAFF Cup last month, were on Saturday summoned by Indian football team coach Stephen Constantine for the camp here as part of the preparation for the friendly against China.

India are slated to play China on October 13 at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre Stadium.

The 29-member squad will assemble in the capital for the two-day camp before they leave for China on October 10.

This is the first time the senior national team is travelling to China to play in an International match. The two sides last met in the Nehru Cup in Kochi back in 1997.

In order to prepare for the forthcoming AFC Asian Cup, India are slated to play a few friendlies in the coming months and the coach feels "this are the kind of games we need."

"China are a strong team and the match will be a tough test for us. But we need to play these sort of games right now. Getting to play under pressure is important and an away fixture in China is exactly the kind of game we need," Constantine stated.

"Hopefully everyone stays free from injury as it's going to be an important game for the build-up to the AFC Asian Cup in January," he added.

Squad:

Goalkeepers- Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Vishal Kaith, Amrinder Singh, Karanjeet Singh.

Midfielders- Pritam Kotal, Sarthak Golui, Sandesh Jhingan, Anas Edathodika, Salam Ranjan Singh, Subhasish Bose, Narayan Das.

Midfielders- Udanta Singh, Nikhil Poojary, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Germanpreet Singh, Anirudh Thapa, Souvik Chakraborti, Vinit Rai, Halicharan Narzary, Bikash Jairu, Ashique Kuruniyan, Lallianzuala Chhangte.

Forwards- Sunil Chhetri, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Balwant Singh, Sumeet Passi, Manvir Singh, Farukh Choudhary

--IANS

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