Injured Bilal to miss Egypt series

LAHORE Pakistan junior hockey team forward Bilal Qadir got knee injury and was expected to be replaced for Egypt series if he was not recovered from injury. Talking to media at National Hockey Stadium of Monday, Pakistan junior hockey teams chief coach Rana Mujahid said: We are working to make Bilal recover soon and make him ready for Egypt where he will exhibit his prowess to prove his worth in the team. He said that the junior team played superb hockey during the Junior Asia Cup and tried to qualify for the Junior Hockey World Cup but luck was not with them. Most of the players in the team for Asia Cup were newly-inducted, inexperienced and appeared in any international event for the first time. Therefore, I requested the Pakistan Hockey Federation to send the junior hockey team to foreign tours for international exposure and experience and mentally strong to handle the pressure in a better way, he stated In junior hockey team, there are many players who can become the major part of the national hockey team in future and can bring laurels for the country, he added. He disclosed that all the junior players in the camp were very talented and all the coaches were working on them individually as collectively to remove their shortcomings. The only problem with these players is fitness and by working on this issue, we will enable them to play any big match against any world best side, he continued. To a query, he replied: Our main focus is to qualify for the Junior Hockey World Cup and are striving hard to give them more and more international exposure so that they be ready for the Junior World Cup and make less mistakes daring the mega event.

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