Constantine rues lack of preparation time for friendly against China

New Delhi: Indian football team head coach Stephen Constantine Wednesday rued lack of preparation time ahead of his team's international friendly against a much-superior China scheduled on October 13.

For the first time, India is travelling to China to play an international match on October 13 at Suzhou Olympic Sports Centre but the team is having just a couple of days of training time. The last time India had played against China was in the Nehru Cup in Kochi way back in 1997. This friendly is a part of India's preparations for the Asian Cup to be held in UAE in January next year.

"Of course, it is a problem (of not having enough time). We don't have much time to do what we need to do, we needed a few more days. Going forward, we need to have more time for preparation in future," Constantine told reporters ahead of the team training.

Most of the players are playing in the ongoing Indian Super League. Many of the players in the national team, including captain and star player Sunil Chhetri, played in the Bengaluru FC vs Jamshedpur FC ISL match on October 7.