BANGKOK, May 12 (TNA) – War Elephants, the national football team of Thailand, may urgently recruit new players because six players and staffers were infected with COVID-19.
The six new cases were two players and four team staffers. They were in a practicing session to prepare for 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifying games of the second Asian qualifying stage in the United Arab Emirates in June.
Twenty-three other players and staffers were isolated and training for the second team of 18 players was delayed pending their second jabs of COVID-19 vaccination. Their departure for the UAE was set on May 21.
Patit Suphaphongs, secretary-general of the Football Association of Thailand, said that if many players are unable to leave the country for the qualifying matches, another team of players who were not the 47 persons earlier listed would go to the UAE instead.
The Thai national football team has three remaining qualifying matches – with Indonesia on June 3, the UAE on June 7 and Malaysia on June 15. (TNA)