MISSING MARQUEES: Kerala marquee Hughes goes on national duty; ATK's Postiga injured

JUST BEFORE THE CRUCIAL match against Atletico de Kolkata, the Kerala Blasters camp found itself wrapped up in a new problem, with their marquee defender Aaron Hughes being called up for his national team.

The Northern Irish former Newcastle, Aston Villa, Fulha and QPR player is the very lynchpin of the KBFC defence; and the team played a defence-heavy game against NortEast United on Saturday. Without him they will be left weakened at the back, and considering they are facing an ATK attack comprising of Iain Hume, Helder Postiga and Sameehg Doutie, it's not a good news.

Hughes will miss two KBFC games; tonight's match against ATK and the next match which will see them face Delhi Dynamos. Both are home games. He will probably be replaced by Senegalese defender Elhadji Ndoye in those games, but that's not a like-for-like substitution by any standard.

Days after starting the season with a defeat, losing their most important player for the next two games is pretty much the worst place for the franchise to be.

And as luck would have it, the same fate befell Helder Postiga right after the match started. Helder Postiga picked up a rib injury and had to be subbed out early in the first half. Both teams, for different reasons, had to play the majority of the match without their much-cherished marquee players.