The Pakistan team was to travel to France on Sept 24 to play three Tests with the hosts on the 27th, 28th and 30th to be followed by two Tests against Poland (Oct 3 and 4) and three against Belgium (Oct 6, 7 and 8). -Photo by APP

KARACHI The Pakistan hockey team is still awaiting word from the French embassy about their visas for the tour of Europe.

The embassy reopened after the Eid holidays on Thursday but there has not been any progress on the matter so far.

Meanwhile, the players are to reassemble at the camp in Lahore on Saturday.

'We can't even plan ahead until Monday when the embassy reopens after the weekend,' said Chief Coach Shahid Ali Khan.

'There is no news yet. And it would also be silly of us to even be expecting the embassy staff to get to our case as soon as they come back after the holidays,' he added.

The Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) had earlier been unable to acquire visas for its 16-member Europe-bound squad.

The Pakistan team was to travel to France on Sept 24 to play three Tests with the hosts on the 27th, 28th and 30th to be followed by two Tests against Poland (Oct 3 and 4) and three against Belgium (Oct 6, 7 and 8).

But they are now looking into rescheduling the matches with a chance of scratching Poland from their programme or even scrap the entire tour of Europe if they don't get the visas by Oct 1.