(Edited by Deepti Ramdas)
With his mother undergoing chemotherapy for cancer in Aberdeen, Real Kashmir FC’s Scottish coach David Robertson can’t help but feel helpless as he’s stuck at a hotel in Srinagar, amid the nationwide lockdown in India because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
‘It’s been very very difficult. I obviously cannot be in contact with her much, only by call. Making video calls back home is difficult. There is frustration as well because it is very difficult based on the fact that I don’t know when I will get home. If something happens to her, it will be very very difficult and very hard to deal with,’ Robertson told The Quint.
The I-League team’s UK-based players and coaches, as well as four players from Africa, are all stuck in a hotel in Srinagar after they could not catch a flight to Delhi in time to leave the country before lockdown was announced.
Team co-owner Sandeep Chattoo too decided to stay back with the players and support staff at the hotel and has been doing all he can to find a way to get them back to their home countries.
“The British Government has organised some evacuation flights for UK citizens but it’s only being done from 3 cities – Delhi, Mumbai and Goa. It is not possible for the players to reach Delhi because the mail we got from the British Embassy made it abundantly clear that only passengers who are already in these three cities can fly on these chartered flights. So, we will have to wait and watch,” Chattoo told The Quint.
Robertson, his wife Kim, and son Mason, who plays for the club, are stuck in Chattoo's hotel in Srinagar since the enforcement of the nationwide lockdown. RKFC skipper Loveday Enyinnaya, Kallum Higginbotham, Aaron Katebe, Bazie Armand, Gnohere Krizo and two members of Robertson's support staff are also with them.
"There are no flights from Srinagar and the problem is, how do I get them to Delhi? Even by road, they will have to go via Punjab and Haryana and all state borders are sealed at the moment. If they cross Punjab, they will be put into quarantine for 15 days and then when they cross Haryana, that’s another 15 days so that’s not practical,’ added the owner, who is staying with the team.
“How could I have gone back home. They are also like my family and so I am with them,” he added.
Real Kashmir FC were placed fourth on the points table when the I-League was suspended owing to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
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