KUALA LUMPUR, 5 July – While Selangor head coach B. Sathianathan (pic below) yearns for ‘contact training’ to resume at the earliest the return of Singaporean Safuwan Baharudin is some consolation for the Red Giants. Contact training is expected to begin on July 16.
Sathianathan, however, is keeping his fingers crossed for another of his foreigners to return and he is Nigerian hitman Ifedayo Olusegun. Both Safuwan and Ifedayo became ‘victims’ of the Coronavirus (Covid-19) and were stuck in their respective countries when borders were closed to contain the spread of the pandemic.
Safuwan returned on Friday and will take to the training on Monday. Selangor does not train on Saturdays and Sunday during this period after teams were given the green light to allow field training strict standard operating procedures(SOP) issued by the Health Ministry and the National Security Council.
The M-League was halted on March 16 – two days before the federal government enforced the nationwide lockdown on March 18.
Selangor last’s match was against Kedah on March 15 in Alor Setar. After the Kedah match, there was a five-day break for all the teams playing in the M-League.
However, Ifedayo was allowed to return to Lagos to visit his ailing mother while Safuwan returned to neighboring Singapore to visit his family. The rest of the players remained a home.
Safuwan’s return a big boost for the Red Giants and Sathianathan has been ‘on the line via zoom’ with Ifedayo who told him that he is ‘itching to return’ to train with the rest of the team.
“I must say all the players have been very professional with the individual training during the lockdown. They are in good shape and this includes Ifedayo,” said Sathianathan.
Selangor has five foreigners in their stable for and Australian defender Taylor Regan is the team skipper. The other foreign players in the Selangor team are Rufino Segovia who hails from Spain and Brazilian forward Sandro da Silva Mendonca.
Sathianathan revealed that Selangor FA is keeping in touch with the respective authorities to bring Ifedayo back at the earliest. Nigeria is also badly affected by Covid-19.
Meanwhile, Sathianathan revealed that Selangor is aiming for a spot in the AFC Cup next season.
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