Zahid Hossain left Dhaka for South Korea on Sunday night to join the Under-23 national football team as areplacement for injured defender Atiqur Rahman Meshu, said a Bangladesh Football Federation official. The BFF arranged the air ticket for the national team and Mohammedan Sporting Club right-winger immediately after receiving his accreditation card, sent by the officials of the Bangladesh Olympic Association from South Korea on Saturday.
Zahid left Dhaka for Korea at 1:35am by Dragan Air and he is scheduled to reach Incheon just three hours before the start of the first match against Afghanistan.
‘We arranged the air ticket for him immediately after receiving his [Zahid] accreditation card and he will reach Incheon three hours before the start of the match,’ said BFF’s executive Hasan Mahmud on Sunday.
Earlier, national team coach Lodewijk de Kruif had called up forward Mithun Chowdhury as replacement for Meshu, who suffered an ankle injury in training before their friendly match against Vietnam on September 10.
But Mithun was not eligible to play in the Asian Games because he was not selected in the 30-member preliminary squad, so de Kruif had to change his mind and select Zahid, who had left the training camp on the very first day due to illness.
-With New Age input
