Injury blow for Cambodia

The Cambodia Basketball Team's quest for glory in China has suffered a set back following the injury to two key players. Monh Putratana broke a finger while Lav Chhaydany has suffered a groin strain following their victory over Macao on Tuesday. A third player who suffered injury to the thigh was able to shrug it off to play the second game yesterday (Wednesday) in the defeat of China Guangxi.

"Its a big blow for us to lose these players in this tournament, we are now left with 10 players"regrets coach Austin Koledoye. "Monh Putratana has been promising for the team among the home boys, he has started to blend well with the foreign players after three games together before this injury and we will have to see how the team does without him"says Coach Austin.

Both players will have to race to be fit for the SEA games which comes up in barely 2 weeks from now. "We had no Injury from the Wednesday game and hope that no more injuries from this tournament"added Coach Austin.

Meanwhile the Cambodian Team will have to complete the tournament without the Nigerian tactician who returned to Cambodia early on Thursday due to pressing duties in Northbridge International School where he is the Athletic Director.

Cambodia National Team will have to complete the rest of the tournament without their head coach Austin Koledoye

"It is sad that i have to leave" says Austin. Earlier on Wednesday, the Principal, Mr. Steve Peterson had given the coach the go ahead to remain at least until after the Group stages, but unfortunately, no seats until 2nd November and with Austin due to lead the team to Indonesia, he has to return to NISC to prepare before leaving for the SEA Games.

"The SEA games is the most important, I need to return to NISC to get things sorted out before leaving for the SEA games"he explained. "I am happy to have been here and seen the team play together, with the last four games including the two we played in Cambodia against Vietnam Hanoi, I now have idea of the strength and weakness of the team to work on" he noted.

" I have spoken to the team and my assistant will take charge while i return to Phnom Penh"he said.

The foreign players have thus decided to take up responsibility to push the team on as the coach leaves. US based Pek Mith who was shocked to see the coach return has called on his fellow foreign players to step things up. "I am surprised to hear that the coach is returning, We all pay attention to him and we will miss him no doubt"he stated. "We will be fine anyway, we will have to step up and take more responsibilities on and off the pitch"he reckoned.

Swedish Import, Boroth Thach has called on the players to communicate more, and urged the local players to build more confidence. " We have communication problems but we need to improve on that" he says "I am certainly going to play hard and share the ball often as I can, we need to continue to play as a team and we will come good in the end" he enthused.

Cambodia Takes on Vietnam Hanoi in the third game of group B at 2:30pm local time. A win will put them in good position to qualify for the semi finals.

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