SAFF Championship 2013: No replacement to be called for axed duo Karma and Rafique

Photo Credit: AIFF Media

India coach Wim Koevermans will not call up any replacements for Karma Tsewang and Mohammed Rafique, who were released from the SAFF Championship preparatory camp in Bangalore on Sunday for not having passports.

Sportskeeda learnt that the two players were left out of the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers camp in March for the same reason and since they still don’t carry a passport, Koevermans felt it wasn’t necessary to have them during the preparations for next month’s SAFF Championship in Nepal.

Back in 2011 during Armando Colaco’s short stint as India coach defender Khelemba Singh and wide midfielder Gilbert Oliveira missed out the international friendly against Maldives and the away leg of the World Cup qualifier against UAE as they didn’t have passports while Rocus Lamare was also unavailable as his travel document had expired.

Karma and Rafique reported for the camp in Bangalore but didn’t train on Saturday and following their release, the camp now has 28 players with goalkeeper Sandip Nandy and Denzil Franco carrying knocks. Nallappan Moharaj replaced the injured Gurjinder Kumar in the camp but Koevermans has decided not to call up any more players.

The final squad for the SAFF Championship is expected to have 20 players so it remains to be seen how many changes Koevermans makes to the squad that traveled to Tajikistan for the international friendly and lost 3-0.

The camp is taking place on the artificial pitch of the Bangalore Football Stadium and is expected to last for another week.