Things got a bit surprising when India's legendary footballer Sunil Chhetri was not present in the 35-man probable list for the upcoming CAFA Nations Cup. The newly appointed head coach, Khalid Jamil, is facing a lot of backlash on social media for leaving out the 40-year-old, who came out of international retirement earlier this year.

However, on Sunday, Jamil put an end to all speculations, breaking his silence on the entire matter. Jamil, who was named India's new head coach after Monolo Marquez resigned from the position, stated that the major reason for leaving Chhetri out was to try out a few younger players going forward. He also mentioned that he had a word with the striker before leaving the Bengaluru FC star off the list.

"Sunil Chhetri is a role model for Indian football, and the door is always open for him. He's not there in this camp because we are playing a tournament, which will essentially serve as preparation for our Asian Cup qualifiers, and I want to try out a few other players," said Jamil, according to an official X post by the Indian football team.

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"I had a talk with him about the same. It's always pressure to have a player like him in the team," he added.

22 players out of 35 have already assembled in Bengaluru for the training camp. The rest of the players will join the team once their commitments for the Durand Cup are concluded.

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Notably, Chhetri came out of retirement for the rest of the Asian Cup qualifiers matches at the request of the then-head coach Manolo Marquez. After returning, Chhetri played four games for India and scored one goal. The striker is one of the most popular football stars in India, scoring 95 goals in 155 appearances.

On the other hand, Indian football recently suffered a major setback as the Indian Super League (ISL), the country's premier domestic football tournament has been put on hold for this year, and it remains to be seen when a permanent solution is determined between the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and Football Sports Development Limited (FSDL).