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 continued girls’s Asian Cup right here, urging them to “use this as fuel” to return again stronger.
Hosts India have been compelled out of the match on Sunday after a dozen COVID-19 circumstances amongst their gamers led to the cancellation of a bunch match in opposition to Chinese Taipei minutes earlier than kickoff, leaving the gamers of the house staff shattered.
“Hi girls, this is Sam Kerr from the Australian national team. Just wanted to send you guys a message and say how sorry I am for the situation you guys are in right now. I am so disappointed for you guys, I know you had been working so hard for this tournament. Use this as fuel, come back stronger,” Kerr stated in a video which the All India Football Federation (AIFF) posted on Twitter.
Australia ahead @samkerr1 with a heart-felt message to our #BlueTigresses 🐯 #AgainTheBlue 💙 #ShePower 👧 #IndianFootball ⚽ pic.twitter.com/tKrNPxERmC
— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) January 26, 2022
“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 endeavours and hopefully one day we’ll see you back in this tournament,” the ace striker added within the video.
One of the world’s greatest names in girls’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 lodge employees in a bio-bubble that was not “foolproof”.
In a scathing assault on the continental physique, Dennerby stated India’s dream of taking a shot on the FIFA World Cup was shattered not due to any fault of the gamers however because of the weak bio-bubble created by the AFC.
He stated the AFC didn’t present any “respect, compassion, empathy” to the staff to take care of the “extraordinary” scenario in such a high-stake match.
“We were all negative of COVID when we reached team hotel and after arrival tests. The first positive case came on the day we went out of hotel for training and a day later (January 17), seven hotel staff tested positive. It is not rocket science to know how the outbreak came,” he informed PTI after a digital media interplay.
“The checks of lodge employees have been completed on January 17 and outcomes of seven optimistic circumstances identified on Jan 18. But the data was given solely on Jan 19 afternoon. What was AFC doing for entire in the future, we don’t 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 offended Dennerby alleged.
