LAHORE, Aug 7: Olympian Ghazanfar Ali, nursing a thumb injury, said on Monday that he was fit to join the national hockey training camp which starts in Abbottabad from Tuesday. Ghazanfar of PTCL is included in the 25-member list of probables announced for the camp set up to prepare and finalise Pakistan team for the World Cup to be held in Germany from Sept 7.

Ghazanfar, who led Pakistan in the Champions Trophy held in Spain in place of Mohammad Saqlain, got his thumb injured in the same competition.

Saqlain could not lead the team in the Champions Trophy since he was facing a three-match suspension imposed by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) for striking an Australian player with his stick at last year’s four-nation Hamburg Masters in Germany.

Under Ghazanfar, Pakistan, however, failed to end the winning drought, running for the last 12 years as it came in fifth among six competitors.

The newly-appointed coach, former Olympian Shahnaz Sheikh will supervise the camp in place of Asif Bajwa, who could not convince PHF secretary Akhtar-ul-Islam about the performance of his team in the Champions Trophy.