The last outing for the Kangar-born player was in last year’s Sultan Azlan Shah Cup tournament. He was not in the team for the Hamburg Masters last October because of an attachment with Hilversum HC Amsterdam in the Dutch League.
He did not make it for the recent Sultan Azlan tournament in Ipoh because of a shin injury.
Ahmad, who was named the 2007 most promising Asian player, said that he had been given a clean bill of health last week to start training.
“I definitely want to play in the Asia Cup after being out of the national team for close to one year now. But I know that it will be tough winning a place in the team because other forwards did well in Ipoh,’’ said Ahmad, who joined the team in training at Bukit Jalil yesterday.
The forwards in the team for the Sultan Azlan tournament were Chua Boon Huat, Ismail Abu, S. Selvaraju, Azlan Misron and Hafifi Hafiz.
The training session yesterday also saw the return of the other players who have recovered from injuries. They are Mohamed Radzie, Annuar Sham, Megat Azrafiq and Sallehin Abdul Ghani.
Ahmad added that he had to work very hard to improve on his fitness and also to sharpen his scoring ability.
“It’s not going to be easy as the other forwards have been in training for some time now and they are definitely much fitter and better prepared for the tournament,’’ said Ahmad, who has 82 international caps to his credit.
In the Asia Cup, Malaysia are in Group A with South Korea, Japan and Oman. Defending champions India are in Group B with Pakistan, China and Bangladesh.
The champions get a direct entry to next year’s World Cup Finals in New Delhi while next four teams will go into qualifying tournaments in November.
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