Chennaiyin squad fully fit, back in action

Chennaiyin FC head coach Bozidar Bandovic will have a fully-fit squad at his disposal for the first time in the Indian Super League Season 8 on Saturday as the ‘Marina Machans’ returns to action following a week’s break for the clash against a struggling NorthEast United FC at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda (Goa).

Chennaiyin’s Montenegrin manager Bandovic was handicapped by injuries to a few overseas recruits in the first half of the season. While Rafael Crivellaro sat on the sidelines before being ruled out of the remainder of ISL 8 with a muscle injury, Vladimir Koman and Ariel Borysiuk missed recent matches due to niggles.

“They (Ariel and Koman) are fine; they are ready to play. Ariel and Koman had minor issues, but trained well [in the last few days] and are ready,” said Bandovic, whose CFC team will take the field after an eight-day interval.

“We were without one foreigner (Crivellaro) for the first 10 matches. It would have been better if we had had one more option. An extra option would have been helpful for us. If I had mentioned it earlier, someone would have thought that I was making excuses. I am happy that we have [all] six foreigners available for the first time,” added Bandovic.

Both Chennaiyin (15 points from 11 matches) and NorthEast (9 points from 12 matches) would be desperate for a win. Providing his assessment of NEUFC, Bandovic said: “It has some good players like Imran (Khan) and (VP) Suhair. We will see what is going to happen with (Deshorn) Brown who is a dangerous player. NorthEast played a few days ago and used a different type of pressing. We have also looked at some of its other games. We have prepared our team [accordingly].”