Sharjah held by semi-pro team in friendly

Dubai: Sharjah were held to a 2-2 draw against Diamond Dubai team in a warm-up match at Sharjah stadium on Tuesday.

Sharjah are preparing for the league and President's Cup matches next month.

Diamond Dubai (a company team forming players from different nationalities) led 2-1 in the first half.

Salim Saif scored first for Sharjah in the 15th minute and Sabri levelled for Diamond and Kisra scored the second in the last minute of the first half. Humaid Ahmad levelled for Sharjah in the 70th minute.

Sharjah played without several players, some of them were missing due to injury and others (Saeed Al Kass and Nawaf Mubarak) were with the national team preparing for the Tunisia match.

Foot injury

The three foreign players, Brazilian Anderson, Iranian Masaoud Shojai and Iraqi Qussai Monir were still suffering from injuries and needed time to recover.

Shojai broke a metatarsal in the league match against Al Nasr which Sharjah won 2-1. Fortunately, Sharjah had no league matches during this period otherwise it would have cost them a lot if these three players were absent.

Khalid Al Midffa, the Sharjah club general secretary, said that five of his players including the three foreign players got injured in the league match against Al Nasr whose players played very aggressively which resulted in five of his players getting injured.

Their league match against Al Jazira on October 21 was postponed due to the participation of Al Jazira in the GCC clubs tournament.

Also, Sharjah's match against Al Wahda on November 2 could be postponed if Al Wahda beat Sepahan of Iran and qualify for the Asian Champions league final.

Sharjah coach Dutch Gerard Van Der Lim will be looking to play more warm-up matches in the coming weeks to keep his players fit and ready for the coming league matches.