FIFA U-17 World Cup: Chile doctor facing a tough time to keep the team steady

New Delhi, Oct 7: India is hosting its first ever World Cup tournament over six cities from Friday. 24 teams will work hard and soul for the prestigious trophy, however, in the month of October, some of the Latin American and European teams have to face a tough hot and humid situation in the meantime.

And just like the mentioned state, according to Chile Under 17 Team’s doctor Cesar Kalazich, the football team who are currently made their base camp in Kolkata, is having a tough time to deal with the hot and humid climate and facing a tough time keeping the weight and shape of the players intact.

Cesar said: "We check that first thing in the morning, the weight when they wake up. This is for long-term weighing, more specifically on the body composition of changes of the players."

"And we weigh them before and after training. This has to do with the fluid loss. We also check the density of the urine before and after training."

The Chile medical team doctor also claimed that the climate of Kolkata is much different that of Chile. The temperature in Kolkata on Thursday evening when they finished training was around 28 degrees Celsius, much hotter than of Chile's climate. However, he suggested that in their limited period of time in the City of Joy, they are trying their best to cope up with the weather.

"We know that the weather of India and Chile are completely different. We can get hot weather but our humidity is very low. This time of the year it is colder and drier than here," said Cesar.

"Since we know that the time to adjust is around 10-14 days, we did not have that much time and we took the players to this centre in Santiago where the conditions are similar to here. So that's why they felt comfortable with this weather and it hasn't been such a shock to them."

And interestingly while talking about the footballer's dieting chart, Cesar mentioned that a strict order has been passed to the whole team that no Indian food will be allowed to consume during the tournament and largely liquid foods are being provided throughout the day to keep the players healthy.

"We are concerned that that can be an issue. Our food is almost the same and a lot of fluid (is being given to them) all throughout the day.

"Also testing the players (whether they are dehydrated or not) by weight changes, and training and in the urine as well. They started out with some difficulties but now it has been four days and they are all well hydrated when they arrive for training and when they finish."

"As much as we like Indian food, they are not trying that since we are so close to the competition. We don't want to risk anything," added Cesar.

Chile will play England U17 squad on Sunday, 8th October in their opening game of Group F and later Iraq and Mexico will play against each other in the same group.