Sunil Chhetri Has Recovered Well, Will Be Indian Football Team's Main Force: Coach Igor Stimac Ahead of Asian qualifiers

Talismanic captain Sunil Chhetri will return to the national team during next month's Asian Cup qualifiers and head coach Igor Stimac is confident that the country will win the tournament and book a ticket for the continental showpiece in China next year. The 37-year-old Chhetri will return to action after six months, having last played for India during their 3-0 win over Nepal in the SAFF Championships final in October. Stimac said Chhetri is back to his full fitness and will be the "main force and strength" of the team.

"Sunil is still here, he's still in great shape," Stimac said when asked how long Chhetri can prolong his career.

"We didn't involve him in Bahrain and Belarus games because he needed time to recover from some minor problems he was facing throughout the last couple of years.

"That time has served very well to Sunil. He has recovered very well. He's showing that on the training pitch every day and still at this point he will be the main force and strength of the Indian national team up front." Chhetri had suffered minor niggles and missed out of the friendlies against Belarus and Bahrain in March.

Stimac also said young forward Rahim Ali, who will be out of action for at least six weeks due to an injury, will be a big loss.

"I feel very sorry that Rahim Ali who in the recent past created a great partnership with Sunil. He was someone who was making Sunil's life much easier up front and doing a great job to be honest, bringing players to his back and leaving Sunil open and free there on the other side," he said. "He was showing great game improvement. Most of the last season he played with this injury on his abductors and now that became chronic and that will keep him out for six-seven weeks." Focus would