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| June 15, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1426 |
Shakeel, Imran regain fitness
LAHORE, June 14: Pakistan Junior hockey team captain , Shakeel Abbasi and full-back Muhammad Imran have recovered from injuries and will be resuming training from Thursday for the Junior World Cup being played in Rotterdam later this month.
“Both players have informed us that they have regained fitness which will be assessed during the training camp on Thursday”, said head coach of the team , Olympian Tahir Zaman after a training session on Tuesday.
Spearhead Shakeel damaged soft tissues of his left foot struck by the ball in a match against India in the Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament while penalty corner specialist Imran sustained finger injury in his right hand during a match against Australia in the same tournament.
Shakeel missed the most important match of the tournament against Malaysia which Pakistan lost and though Imran played against Malaysia but failed to give his one hundred percent due to the injury.
Tahir said the return of Shakeel was a good sign for the team as he is a vital part of the 18-member Pakistan squad announced for the Jr World Cup.
“We want that both of them are fully recovered and we want to ensure their 100 percent match fitness”, he said.
The team official said at the moment 25 probables including seven stand byes were attending the camp which will end on June 19 and stand byes will stay back.
Answering a question, he said, team management was focusing on improving finish inside the circle, better conversion of penalty corners and defence on the short corners, sustaining of pressure in demanding situations.
“These were the grey areas which let us down against Malaysia and we are working on them and definitely we will be an improved side when we start our campaign in the Cup “, he asserted.
Tahir expressed the hope that the team would perform well in the Junior World Cup as most of the players had now gained experience by playing in the Azlan Shah Cup.—APP
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