Head coach Thomas Dennerby could continue, but the journey of several of his Indian players has ended even before they could hit the road to fame, courtesy the cancellation of next year's FIFA Women's U-17 World Cup. Having worked so hard and for so long, they are now unsure about their future for no fault of theirs. As consolation, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Wednesday assured them that they would be considered for selection to the senior team in the near future. "I believe that some players, who are 2005 born in this team, may qualify to play in the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in 2022.

FIFA (has) not yet (given age cut-offs) but we believe it will be 2005-2007 born," AIFF general secretary Kushal Das told PTI. "All these players are part of overall plan to develop women's football. They will continue to be part of national camp. "This team will be the core team to play in round one of AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup qualifiers in March 2021 in view of their training and exposure so far." He said many of these players (who will miss out on the 2022 Women's U-17 World Cup) "will make it" to the senior national team for the AFC Asian Women's Cup in 2022, which the country is hosting. The tournament in India, which was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was on Tuesday cancelled by the world governing body FIFA and the country was handed the hosting rights of the 2022 edition. More than half of the players who were called for national camp last year to prepare for the now-scrapped 2020 edition of the tournament will be over the age of 19 by 2022.