35 booters to start six-week camp
With the joint qualifiers of the 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup likely to resume in early October, Bangladesh head coach Jamie Day has designed a six-week preparation camp with 35 players ahead of the booters' game against a visiting Afghanistan. But a smooth preparation depends on the improvement of the coronavirus situation.
The British coach would usually get 10 days with his side before any international engagement but this time around he has sought a six-week training period at both home and abroad, including three to four practice matches. His charges, who have been out of action since mid-March, will be idle for another two months before starting the national training in August.
"At the moment I have already recommended to the BFF [Bangladesh Football Federation] what should be done [ahead of the tie against Afghanistan]. It is a five-six weeks training camp with three or four friendly games before the World Cup Qualifier on 8th October," Jamie told The Daily Star from England.
The 40-year-old wants to have the first four weeks of training on foreign soil and two weeks at home and believes six weeks is enough for footballers to regain fitness.
Captain Jamal Bhuiyan also backed Jamie about training outside of Bangladesh.
"I think six weeks is enough with a proper training camp. Of course I think half of the training camp should be held outside of Bangladesh. And if we can arrange some friendlies, then we can get match fitness back," Jamal told The Daily Star, saying preferred destinations would be Thailand or Qatar.
However, National Teams Committee chairman and BFF vice-president Kazi Nabil Ahmed is hesitant about sending the booters aboard due to the worsening situation of coronavirus as well as bans on international travel.
"We are thinking of an isolated training camp in Bangladesh first, subject to improvement of the current situation. We will then consider whether to send the booters outside of Bangladesh after discussing with the coach, who will have to come to Bangladesh first," Nabil told The Daily Star.
"At the moment, there are a lot of issues in arranging the training camp aboard because there is a question of how to go beyond borders and return home. Then we also have to look at the current coronavirus situation in the country where we want to train as well as look at the training facilities and possibility of playing practice matches there," added Nabil.
"Everything will depend on the situation and we have to wait till next month to see the situation and then we will take a decision on how to start the training camp."
Jamie believes the present condition of the players is fine as they have been following training schedules at home. The advice for players now is to mentally prepare for upcoming matches. He also said the preliminary squad of 35 players would be shortened over time.
The coach believes that the tie against Afghanistan at home will be equally as difficult it was overseas, where Bangladesh lost 1-0.
"It will be a tough game as they are ranked higher and have better players than us. I am guessing there be no supporters at the match either, which would have benefited us. But we will try our best to get a positive result," said Jamie.
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