East Bengal's Lalrindika Ralte and Mehtab Hossain involved in training ground bust-up
©East Bengal Facebook
East Bengal midfielders Lalrindika Ralte and Mehtab Hossain had to be separated in the training ground after a fight broke out between the duo. The scrap materialized after Ralte, who has recently recovered from an injury, received a crunching tackle from Mehtab in a practice session on Friday.
According to reports, a number of senior members of the squad, including the likes of Ranti Martins and Harmanjot Singh Khabra, had to step in to stop it from turning into an ugly brawl.
The atmosphere in the East Bengal dressing room has been a subject of a lot of speculation recently. Biswajit Bhattacharya, who had resigned as manager of East Bengal after their 3-1 defeat against Bengaluru FC in the I-League, revealed in his column for a Bengali newspaper that “there were a few faces in the dressing room who would leak discussions to the media”.
New signing Bernard Mendy has also been at the center of a dressing room conflict with the manager, while Do Dong-Hyun was earlier fined for showing contempt when he was substituted against Aizawl FC at the Barasat Stadium. New manager Trevor James Morgan will look to resolve these dressing unrest before they start their Federation Cup campaign against Shillong Lajong.
It will be a significantly depleted team which will fly to Shillong for the match. Midfielder Cavin Lobo is scheduled to undergo a knee surgery, which will keep him out till July, while Bernard Mendy and Bikash Jairu have also been ruled out for the Fed Cup opener. Robert Lalthlamuana is doubtful to start against Shillong, but could possibly make it to the bench.
