Abahani Limited finally are going to India today to play their away match of AFC Cup without their vital player Sunday Chizoba, who was refused to issue visa by Indian High Commission.

Sunday, who scored one off 2-2 drawn match at their home ground against Minarva Punjab and certainly one of the most important performers, led the Abahani in domestic competition scoring highest goals for the team.      

Abahani is scheduled to leave Dhaka today at 7am on their way to Ahmedabad, the venue of Chanaiyin FC and will fly to Ahmedabad from Kolkata at 12:30pm (Indian time).

The absence of Sunday would certainly a great setback for Abahani at away ground but Sattayajit Das Rupu, manager of the Abahani Limited, who tried hard to bring Sunday with the team to India, when talking to The Independent yesterday said, “Now, we have no option but to go without Sunday, as we did not manage visa for him and we are ready to play without him.”

“We tried heart and soul and hope we would be able to go with full strength but failed and his absence certainly a setback for us, but nothing to do. As he is not with us it is reality and we will have to play without him, so mentally we are prepared to face the situation..”

“He was regular scorer in the team, it was big advantage for us, now he is not I the team but we will have play and we will try to fight with the available sources,” said Rupu.

 Meanwhile, Sunday, the Nigerian forward accompanied Abahani last year to play AFC competition in India when he had no problem get Indian visa.

Abahani’s Portugal coach Mario Lamos is also thinks it is great loss for them – “Not to get Sunday is a big setback for us, but we want to make points in India.” We haven’t loss in the ongoing AFC Cup competition and we want to continue the way.”