Delhi: The Punjab FC bench was up in arms and confronted Rahul KP when the Kerala Blasters player barged into Luka Majcen in the dying minutes of the ISL game last week.
Punjab was leading 2-1 in the game when Rahul challenged for a 50-50 ball clattering into the Slovenian sending him to the ground.
Luka looked hurt and as it would come out later, he is ruled out for more than two months suffering a fractured jaw.
Now the task for the Shers will be to take on Odisha FC in their first home game of the season at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi without their most experienced man.
Talking about his injury, PFC coach Panagiotis Dilmperis said,” We hope that Luka recovers quickly and joins the team. He is a fighter and would have been with the team even in this situation if it was possible.”
While Punjab will miss the services of Luka, they have two new signings midfielder Filip Mrzljak and Argentine Pulga Vidal at their disposal.
Filip Mrzljak scored the last-minute winning goal against Kerala Blasters FC on his debut.
Talking about his debut, Filip said, “It has been a great start personally for me and for the team. The ISL is tougher than I expected and the matches will get tougher from here. We have trained well as a team and we hope for a tough match against Odisha tomorrow.”
Last season, Odisha got the better of Punjab FC at New Delhi, beating them 1-0 with Roy Krishna scoring the decisive goal.
The Fijian striker will be the focal point of attack for the Juggernauts along with dynamic midfielder Ahmed Jahouh and new signing Hugo Boumous along with Indian players Isak Vanlalruatfela, Raynier Fernandes, and Jerry Mawihmingthanga.