Bhaichung rules out retirement

Doha, Jan 18 (PTI) Talismanic Indian football captainBhaichung Bhutia today ruled out retirement from theinternational arena despite featuring for just 15 minutes inthe Asian Cup, saying he will assess his future in two monthsand continue playing if he recovers fully from his calf muscleinjury.

Bhaichung missed India''s first two matches in the AsianCup and played for 15 minutes in the last match against SouthKorea, his first international match after suffering a calfmuscle injury in mid September last year.

"I don''t want to retire injured. I will take a break fortwo-three months and see that if I can recover fully from myinjury and after that I will decide. I think I will recover intwo or three months and then I will continue playing," he saidafter India lost 1-4 against South Korea here.

"I consulted the Australian team doctor and other localdoctors here. Every two days blood clots are drained from mycalf and I took painkillers. I did not feel any discomfort inthe 15 minutes I played today. I am happy that I played in theAsian Cup.

"It is the biggest stage of football in Asia. For everyAsian player, the World Cup and Asian Cup are the biggesttournaments. I am happy to have played in the Asian Cup," hesaid.

"I will play in the next Asian Cup (in 2015 inAustralia)," he added in a lighter vein.

Bhutia said the team had learnt a lot from thecompetition considering that they are playing for the firsttime in 27 years.

"We are playing for the first time in the Asian Cup aftera gap of 27 years and we were clubbed against sides likeAustralia and South Korea. But overall, the team did very welland we have learnt a lot from the competition. We played verywell in the second half in all the three matches though we hadgiven too much respect to the opposition in the first half inall the matches," he said.