Habibur less India to go for win tomorrow against Myanmar

Kolkata, Feb 13 (UNI) India will miss left back Habibur Rehaman Mondal when they take on Myanmar in search of full points in their Beijing Olympics qualifiers preliminary round at the Salt Lake stadium here tomorrow.

The Mohammedan Sporting defender was ruled out of the match due to a knee injury and will undergo knee surgery in Mumbai under renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr Anant Joshi. Talented Tata Football Academy player Rakesh Masih or Mohun Bagan sideback D Ravanan are expected to fill in for him.

The Indian team suffered another jolt today after Gurpreet Singh hurt his head in the evening just before practice. Team manager Santa Maitra said: '' Gurpreet was a bit careless and banged his head against the tunnel shutter. He didn't practice today, but will play tomorrow. The junior lads had a one hour practice session at the Salt Lake stadium under the watchful eyes of technical director Colin Toal and coach Stanely Colaco. '' The Indians will go all out for a win and Mahindra United's Manjit Singh and Mohun Bagan's Sushil Singh are expected to start upfront.

Mr Colaco said: '' It will be a tough match. But we are confident of a positive result. They play very fast football and we have to counter that. '' India were held for a 1-1 draw during the away fixture in Yangon.

Myanmar's manager Mr Tin Ham said: '' We have no injury worries.

We depend on team game. India are a good side, but we expect to put up a stiff fight. '' The Indians have to be on their guard against lethal forward Sithu Win and also skipper Khin Mgthun. The two along with last match goal scorer Kyaw Thiha can strike up a deadly combination and trouble the Indian defence. While Win is good both in air and of the ground, Thiha is an ideal opportunist.

India skipper NS Manju will have to shoulder a lot of responsibility to marshal his defence. Custodian Subrata Paul who had an outstanding outing in the match across the border, but will be replaced by Subhashis Roy Chowdhury in all probability.

Teams: India: Subhashis Roy Chowdhury(GK), Gurjinder Singh, Nanjangub MAnju, Debabrata Roy, Chitrasen Chandam, S Rahim Nabi, M Gourmangi Singh, MAnjit Singh, Saikh Tarif Ahmed, Sushil Singh, Cardoso Vincent, D Ravanan, M Hossain, Sunil Kumar, Rakesh Masih, Rocus Lamare, Parveen Rawat, Subrata Paul (GK).

Myanmar: K Z Htet (GK), H W Aung, M Win, Z H Aung, K M Tun, S T Aung, A M Aye, Si T Win, A M Tyant, M M Tun, H Kyaw, A San, A W Naing, Y W Thein, K T Ha, H A Htwe, H K Thu(GK).

UNI