Nadi football suffered a set­back when reliable defender Rupeni Rabici was ruled out of the Vodafone Fiji FACT semi-final clash against Lautoka on Saturday.

Rabici copped a direct red card from referee Avinesh Narayan in their final pool clash against Nasinu for a violent conduct.

Fiji Football Association compe­titions manager Amitesh Pal con­firmed that Rabici cannot play on Saturday.

“Rabici’s direct red card rules him out for two matches,” Pal told Fiji FA Media.

“This means he is out of the tour­nament as far as Nadi’s Fiji FACT campaign is concerned.

“No other player will miss the semi-finals while the single yellow cards cancel after the completion of the pool games.”

Meanwhile, Lautoka midfielder Zibraaz Sahib is confident of a suc­cessful outing this weekend.

Sahib said neighbours Nadi are go­ing to be strong team but that should stop them from achieving their goal by winning the Fiji FACT.

Sahib who has been a dedicated player to his team for the last nine years said players had been commit­ted to training and this was reflected in their pool results.

“Nadi is a good team and they also play physically also,” he said.

“In this week’s game against the Nadi side we will only be going on the field with a positive mindset and do a lot of communication with the boys because at the end of the day we want to do well for our team and for the people of Lautoka.”

He said they are recovering well and ample training would be his main focus before the semifinals.

“I will recover well then train well for this week, it will be a good one,” he said.

Sahib is calling on Lautoka sup­porters to come out in numbers and support them this weekend.

Edited by Leone Cabenatabua

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