Gao Hong Bo says his players have had so much of workload in domestic Football in the on-going season that everyone is tired.
As per Hong Bo, in China , to go from one city to the other, long distances have to covered because China is huge not only from the population point of view, but, also in terms of land and spending long time flying after playing matches is really tiresome for the players.
The former striker of Team Dragon said, “In other countries, the cities are nearby and the journey time for the players is not much, but, those playing here have to travel a lot. So, apart from the no. of matches, that’s another factor because you lose a lot of energy when you are on the plane for long durations.”
“Whenever the players come in the middle of the season, I always find them worn out and it’s no different on this occasion. I can’t see anyone in good shape to be honest and that’s why this match and the match next month, both are tough.”
On asked if all the players had reported on time in the camp, Hong Bo replied, “No, Li hasn’t come. We had dialled the medical department of his club and they informed us of his injury and I believe we will have to be without him. So, one player short at the moment and we are going to have a fitness test of everyone in the next 24 to 48 hours. Once we know about the state of everyone’s fitness, we will have a meeting with the medical staff after which we will see if we need to name more players.”
Syria is China’s opponent in its third match in Group A in round no. 3 of Asian qualification.