Expatriate footballer Zayan joins national team as Bangladesh miss out on a warm-up match before Bhutan

American expatriate footballer Zayan Ahmed has joined the Bangladesh national football team as preparations continue for the SAFF tournament.

Bangladesh began their camp on 25 October, and head coach Thomas Dooley took to field training the following day.

After several days of two training sessions a day, the team was given rest today. A recovery session was held at the hotel, and Zayan joined the national team on the same day.

Bangladesh's first match is on 5 November, against Bhutan. Both of Bangladesh's matches will kick off at 8pm.

Under SAFF regulations, a list of 28 footballers was due to be submitted on 18 October. But according to team manager Amirul Islam Babu, Bangladesh has still not submitted that list.

Beyond Dooley's 28, Abdullah Omar Sajeev and Taj Uddin have also joined the squad.

Kazem Shah, Morsalin, Bishwanath and Sohel Rana are among those in the Bangladesh squad dealing with injury and illness. Many of them cannot train fully with the team and are running individually.

Before the 5 November match, BFF officials had said a preparation match would be arranged, if not against a national team then at least against a club side. But because the period falls outside the FIFA window, the BFF could not find a national team.

Club sides could not be arranged either, as domestic football leagues are under way in neighbouring countries.

In the past in such situations, the national team played preparation matches against an XI made up of foreign footballers playing in Bangladesh. That will not happen this time either.

Dooley had planned to split the national team into two sides for a match today. That plan was postponed, and training itself was called off.

Bangladesh will train tomorrow at 9:30am. In the afternoon, a friendly match will be held between the 2003 SAFF champion side and the 2010 SA Games champion side.