Admitting that he was "unprofessional" to play while nursing an injury, Indian football ace Baichung Bhutia said it would take him at least another 3-4 weeks to get back into action.
"It was unprofessional of me to play when I knew I was 70 to 80 per cent fit. I made a mistake, but I can't do anything about it. The system here is so different that you have to play. If I was in the UK, perhaps I would not have played," he said on the sidelines of a function in Delhi on Tuesday.
Bhutia was sidelined after a calf muscle injury in the first phase of the National Football League, ruling him out of India's campaign in the SAFF tournament in Dhaka.
Brushing aside reports that coach Stephen Constantine was miffed about his fitness level, Bhutia said, "It's natural for any coach to feel that way. Any player who is not able to play for such an important tournament will also feel disappointed."
Expressing hope that the Indian team would do well inspite of the loss to arch rivals Pakistan, Bhutia said there is no need to read too much into the match.
"Football is a game where you will have upsets and bad days. I am sure we will do well in today's match and go through to the semis."
Bhutia informed that he is currently undergoing physiotherapy from Dr Vece Paes, doing his rehabilitation in Kolkata, and concentrating on getting his fitness and stamina back to the optimum level.
Lamenting the lack of good coaches who can groom players at the national level, he said it is not enough just to have funds to raise the standard of Indian football.
"It's not enough just to have plenty of funds at the club level. You also need to have the right kind of people to run the game. They should be professionals and not just people who are in it just for the love of the game," he said.
He said Indian football officials need to study the European model of football management and apply it in India.
"We have tried a system here and it has not worked. We need to think about what is wrong with it and study the system in Europe, where they really take care of their players, groom them from a young age."
The system in India, he said, is faulty in the sense that most players who came from far-off places, take time to adjust to the big-city atmosphere of Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi, and get dropped if they do not perform well.
"Players who do not perform well are dropped after the initial matches and get lost somewhere in the system. There is a need for contracts that extend for two to three years so that these players get a chance to showcase their talent for a consistent period," he said.
Commenting on the appointment of Stephen Constantine as coach of the Indian team, he said it made a positive difference to the way the side plays, but added there is no purpose in bringing in foreign trainers and fitness experts if the attitude of the players towards fitness does not change.
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