Pro Kabaddi League 2017 Season 5: Jaipur coach reveals Selvamani K will miss match against Pune on Thursday

The Jaipur Pink Panthers are coming off an extended recovery period post their first match on the 29th of July against Dabang Delhi and will lock horns against the Puneri Paltan the 21st match of the Pro Kabaddi season.

However, despite this long break, Selvamani who suffered a groin injury early on in the last match is not back to cent percent fitness and will hence not feature for the team in their clash against Pune. Balwan Singh, the head coach of the Panthers said, "Selvamani will not play tomorrow, the physiotherapist of the team is working with him on the injury." The coach was a wee bit hesitant to reveal any further details on the same issue, just suggesting that Selvamni had not completely recovered.

Jaipur Pink Panthers will duly miss the services of their frontline raider, who spearheaded the attack for the team alongside Jasvir Singh. He is one the key cogs in the machine for the team's success given his ability to pick up points quickly and in heaps when on a raid, thus rendering the rival defence hapless on many occasions.

In their first match against Dabang Delhi, Jaipur was in the lead by a huge margin of 10 points at the end of the first half before they lost the plot and ended up losing the game with a scoreline of 30-26.

In the light of this loss, captain Manjeet Chhillar had highlighted the importance of Selvamani's presence on the mat when he was quoted as saying, “It was bad luck plus we lost Selvamani early on in the game, he is our main raider alongside Jasvir. We lost him within five minutes of the game. I believe if we had Selvamani, he would have supported us well."

Coach Balwan Singh had also echoed the same opinion, “We began losing the match the minute Selvamani suffered an injury. He is one of the youngest and best raiders, the team suffered a lot without him."

In place of Selvamani, Tushar Patil was brought in as a substitute in the last match and he is most likely to make the cut into the starting seven. The former Puneri Paltan recruit will look to put his best foot forward and showcase his talent and skills in the attack under the aegis of Jasvir Singh and Manjeet Chhillar.

Jaipur plays only their second match of the season tomorrow against the Puneri Paltan at the Mankapur Indoor Stadium in Nagpur.