The PFC assignment may be Tariq^s first team assignment but it is a signficant milestone in a long journey. Tariq^s roots can be traced to Akola, a mofussil centre near Nagpur. However, Tariq was born in Saudi Arabia and lived the first ten years of his life there.

A significant part of his education happened in Pune where he went to the Sancheti college where he got his bachelor^s degree. Right after this, he went to work in Mumbai with former physio of the Indian cricket team, Dr Ali Irani who is also the president of the Physiotherapy Association, India.

He returned to Pune and worked for sometime at the Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital. This was followed by a three year stint at health club Solaris. Here he was incharge of choosing the right equipment, supplements and things related to medical and science at the club.But all of that experience was different from what he has experienced at PFC.

Tariq has dealt with individual sportsman in sports like table tennis, cricket, inline skating, badminton.

Taking part of a full team was a new challenge and a fantastic experience for the young Shaikh. However, Tariq did bring in the most important thing - the understanding that a sportsman thinks completely differently about injuries. Tariq also understood that when an injury occcurs its important to treat not just the body but the mind too.

PFC is one of those clubs where the fitness of the players is taken very seriously. As part of the player^s health profile, injuries that have happened before the player joined the club, the injury prone areas for each player, supplements for each player - all this is tracked to ensure that the player^s remain in top condition. And Tariq is in the thick of things in all this.