Use this as gasoline, come again stronger: Australian star to Indian gamers

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In a heartfelt message, Australian soccer staff star Sam Kerr on Wednesday empathised with the Indian gamers after a COVID-19 outbreak led to the nation’s ouster from the continuing ladies’s Asian Cup right here, urging them to “use this as fuel” to return again stronger .

Hosts India have been compelled out of the event on Sunday after a dozen COVID-19 instances amongst their gamers led to the cancellation of a gaggle match in opposition to Chinese Taipei minutes earlier than kickoff, leaving the gamers of the house staff shattered.

“Hi women, that is Sam Kerr from the Australian nationwide staff. Just wished to ship you guys a message and say how sorry I’m for the state of affairs you guys are in proper now. I’m so disillusioned for you guys, I do know you had been working so laborious for this event. Use this as gasoline, come again stronger,” Kerr mentioned in a video which the All India Football Federation (AIFF) posted on Twitter.

“I was looking forward to hopefully playing you guys but it wasn’t to be, hopefully in the future we’ll meet. Good luck in your future endavours and hopefully one day we’ll see you back in this tournament,” the ace striker added within the video.

One of the world’s largest names in ladies’s soccer, Australian captain Kerr was overwhelmed to the FIFA Best Women’s Player of the Year (2021) award by Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas.

On Wednesday, Indian staff coach Thomas Dennerby squarely blamed the Asian Football Federation (AFC) for the COVID-19 outbreak that led to the nation’s exit from the continental showpiece, alleging that his gamers have been contaminated by the resort workers in a bio-bubble that was not “foolproof”.

In a scathing assault on the continental physique, Dennerby mentioned India’s dream of taking a shot on the FIFA World Cup was shattered not due to any fault of the gamers however as a result of weak bio-bubble created by the AFC.

He mentioned the AFC didn’t present any “respect, compassion, empathy” to the staff to cope with the “extraordinary” state of affairs in such a high-stake event.

“We have been all unfavourable of COVID after we reached staff resort and after arrival assessments. The first constructive case got here on the day we went out of resort for coaching and a day later (January 17), seven resort workers examined constructive. It isn’t rocket science to understand how the outbreak got here,” he advised PTI after a digital media interplay.

“The assessments of resort workers have been performed on January 17 and outcomes of seven constructive instances recognized on Jan 18. But the knowledge was given solely on Jan 19 afternoon. What was AFC doing for complete sooner or later, we do not know.

“The hotel staff was tested for every six days and not every three days as done in case of teams, we don’t know why,” an indignant Dennerby alleged.

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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS

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