Nine in good physical condition, others almost there

Only nine players in the national hockey team passed the fitness test conducted by the National Sports Institute (NSI) last month.

Another nine were a little short of the required mark.

The remaining 12 players in the squad of 30 have a fair bit of work to do in order to catch up with the others.

The players underwent a full testing with the NSI when they started training on Jan 5. They are preparing for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April and the Asia Cup in Dubai in May.

At least they are not as bad as their football counterparts. Last month, only three national footballers passed the fitness test conducted by the NSI prior to their Asia Cup qualifying match against the United Arab Emirates. The outcome: a 5-0 mauling and public outcry!

National interim hockey coach Tai Beng Hai said that the report had given him a good idea of the fitness level of the team and he would now start working on the specific areas with the players concerned.

“There are four levels in the fitness test that we conducted. Nine are in the excellent category while the other nine are in the good category. The rest come under the fair category,” he said.

“We have been emphasising on their fitness since we started training and I am sure that the players have done a fair bit of work since then.

“But we are not stopping there as we want to raise the fitness level of all the players and we want to see the not-so-fit catch up with the fittest. Only then can we perform at our peak against the top teams consistently.”

The coach, however, did not specify the players in the different categories.

He said Mohd Sallehin Abdul Ghani, who suffered a thigh strain last December, had rejoined training while Zulkifli Rejab (knee injury) and Riduan Nasir (leg injury) are still undergoing rehabilitation.

Riduan underwent surgery on his leg and is not likely to be picked for the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. Zulkifli is still undergoing treatment for the knee injury suffered in December 2007.