Red Warriors to start training on Sept 20

Adil Al Balushi -

MUSCAT, Sept 5 -

The Oman national football team will return to field training on September 20 after a six-month break due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to head coach Branko Ivankovic.

In exclusive remarks to Oman Daily Observer, the Croatian coach said all precautionary measures will be taken ahead of the first camp.

“The players will resume training with a camp in Muscat starting on September 20. All the players will be tested for COVID-19 on September 20 and next three days all the players will be in isolated quarantine. After completion from the test results, the players with negative cases can only resume the individual training on September 23 as per the approved medical protocol,” the ‘Red Warriors’ coach said.

The national team will regroup after the last gathering in February before the sporting activities were stopped in the Sultanate due to the coronavrius outbreak.

FOCUS ON FITNESS

The 65-year-old mentioned that the previous proposal for training was supposed to begin on September 1 but was postponed. “The restarting of the warm-up sessions will be in very careful mode as all the players were away from the ground training since very long period. This is as well a precautionary step to avoid the players from the injuries that could happen from this long break. Our technical plan depends on a gradual system with the physical shaping sessions until reaching to the required levels of the fitness,” he added.

On August 17, the Supreme Committee for dealing with COVID-19 allowed some of the sports venues for specific teams to resume their trainings as they have some external participations including Oman national football team and Dhofar club.

“A dedicated thanks to the Supreme Committee and the Oman Football Association for their efforts on allowing the national team players to resume field training. The only domestic club under training currently is Dhofar and we hope the Supreme Committee will announce soon on allowing the resumption of other local footballing competitions which will support all the players to begin their gradual comeback to the actual training,” Branko pointed out.

“I realise that the performance of the team players in this camp will not be same before the pandemic. However, the gradual comeback to the training field will enable the team members to register the normal technical performance after some period. As I mentioned, we have to be very careful at this stage specially we may expect some injuries due to the long break,” the former coach of Iran added.

Commenting on the top areas he will focus during the first preparatory camp, the coach responded that this local camp will be the first camp after long break and it should be done according to the medical protocol.

“The first week will focus on the individual training sessions while in the second week, we will begin small group training sessions. Few weeks later, I believe we will be in a better position to have larger groups of technical and tactical trainings sessions. With this technical plan, we can reach to the better technical positions and then move to the competing levels,” he said.

‘BETTER TO PLAY WC QUALIFIERS THIS YEAR’

The Croatian coach was not happy with the Fifa and AFC decision on moving the qualification of Fifa World Cup and AFC Asian Cup to 2021. “ I preferred if we could play in this year rather than moving to the year later. This postponement could impact negatively on the players due to the lengthy period of the qualification. Anyhow, we will try to utilise the Fifa days and to arrange different international friendly matches which will enter the players to the status of the international competitions. Moreover, there is a plan for better preparation with comprehensive training camps and training sessions,” he explained.

The national team head coach had arrived to the Sultanate in mid of August and then was isolated in home quarantine for 14 days according to the Sultanate procedures. Then, the coach held discussions with the OFA officials on the resumption programme. The Oman head coach is expected to announce the list of probables for the upcoming preparatory camp in the coming days.