LAHORE: Senior players Rehan Butt and Shakeel Abbasi are most likely to be included in the 16-member Pakistan squad to strengthen the weak forward line for the upcoming Olympics.

Both Rehan and Shakeel along with Mohammad Imran and Wasim Ahmad and four other players were not part of the recently-concluded Azlan Shah Cup since their cases regarding their participation in the controversial World Series Hockey were pending before PHF’s disciplinary committee.

The PHF cleared all the four aforementioned players after imposing cash penalties on them. The players’ clearance coincided with the dismal performance of the national team in Azlan Shah Cup.

Having shown poor performance in the Azlan Shah Cup, the PHF also wanted to include Shakeel, Rehan and Wasim in the 18-member team touring Europe, but the PHF failed to get them visas for Europe.

Later on, they were asked to attend the ongoing back-up camp where sources say that Shakeel and Rehan are showing impressive fitness while Mohammad Imran and Waseem are struggling to prove their fitness.

Also, PHF secretary Asif Bajwa while talking to reporters on Tuesday said that players’ fitness level would be important for selection.

The secretary said that the final training camp before the London Olympics would now start on June 26 in Abbottabad while a 16-member team with two reserves would be announced in the first week of July.

Stating that the national selection committee would be taken on board over fitness level of players, the PHF secretary said that he had also set a target of making the podium at the London Olympics.

To a question about the fitness of senior players, Bajwa said that he was yet to take stock of fitness level of the senior players attending the training camp since he arrived in Lahore from Europe on Monday.

Commenting on the national team’s performance in Europe, Bajwa said though the team’s show in the Azlan Shah Cup was not satisfactory, the boys played well in Europe, adding that despite absence of senior players the team did well on the Europe tour.

Though the national team needs improvement in different departments, overall it looked a bunch of players with great desire to achieve good position in the London Olympics, the PHF secretary said.

Bajwa further said that the national team conceded 14 goals during the Europe tour while struck only eight, clearly indicating that if defence was improved the team could perform far better.