By Kaushik Kumar
Hyderabad, July 20 (IANS) Patna Pirates had pinned their hopes on star defender Surender Nada going into season seven of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL), buyinh him at the auction for a whopping Rs77 lakh. But looks like their tactical move after a poor show in season 6 is set to fall flat as the player has failed to recover in time for the start of the campaign.
Speaking to IANS, sources in the know of developments said that Nada — Patna Pirates’ costliest buy this season — is set to miss the season as he hasn’t recovered from the injury to his hand. The franchise though is yet to make any official announcement on the same.
“Surendra has been deemed unfit by an expert team of doctors and he is still to recover fully from his injury that he sustained last season. We took multiple opinions, but unfortunately all the experts have advised him to stay off the mat,” the source said.
Nada was also ruled out of the last season of the PKL with the injury to his left hand. He had picked the injury during Haryan Steelers’ opening encounter against Puneri Paltan.
Nada is a left-corner specialist defender with one of the most feared ankle holds in the game. He was the joint highest tackle point scorer in the inaugural season of Pro Kabaddi and instrumental in U Mumba’s title campaign in Season 2.
He is the second-most successful defender in Pro Kabaddi and had the most tackle points in Season 5 (80 from 21 matches).
(Kaushik Kumar can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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