ISL: Artificial turf forces Trezeguet to give today's Kolkata match a miss

Kolkata: Blame it on the artificial turf here as city football aficionados will miss out an opportunity to watch French World Cup winner David Trezeguet in action in FC Pune City's Indian Super League fixture against Atletico de Kolkata.
"It is a long tournament and we did not want to take a risk with our marquee player on the injury prone artificial surface," a team official said of the former Juventus star's absence.

David Trezeguet

The artificial turf at the Salt Lake Stadium has come in for criticism earlier also, with even ATK marquee player, Luis Garcia, saying it was difficult to play on. It's not the first time that the Vivekanand Yuva Bharati Krirangan's surface has come in for criticism as many including home team's marquee player Luis Garcia have expressed concerns in the past.

Fikru returns
Meanwhile, league leaders Atletico de Kolkata will be bolstered by the return of their mercurial forward Fikru Teferra and coach Antonio Lopez Habas. The AIFF disciplinary committee reduced the ban on Habas to two matches for lack of evidence so the Spaniard marquee manager will return to the turf today along with the Ethiopian forward, much to the home team's delight.