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Looks like it's all over for the Philippine football team in the Asian Youth Games in Singapore despite an appeal by Philippine Sports Commission chair Harry Angping to allow the squad to play after one of its members tested positive for the swine flu virus.
Angping said three new cases of the Influenza A(H1N1) virus involving members of the Hong Kong football team has all but derailed the Filipino booters’ chances of playing in the tournament, which kicked off Saturday.
“They could have easily accommodated us,” Angping said Monday night. “But they couldn’t decide immediately. And with the new cases in the Hong Kong team, mukhang malabo na (it looked bleak). It could go either way.”
Angping appealed to the AYG organizing committee and the Singapore Ministry of Health in a meeting Monday afternoon to reduce the number of days for quarantine to enable the Filipinos to play on Thursday.
Singapore newspaper The Straits Times reported that the rest of the members of the 21-man football delegation, including 17 players and coaches Andrew Santiago and Bob Salvacion and a team doctor, had tested negative for the virus Sunday, two days after 14-year-old player Claudio Lopa, who studies at PAREF Southridge School in Muntinlupa, had contracted swine flu.
The team arrived in Singapore Thursday. “The good thing is that Singapore has one of the best medical facilities that could help the player recover faster,” the PSC chief said.
Angping said the meeting was going well, until organizers were informed about the three new cases in the Hong Kong team.
“I told them it was disappointing for the players to train and not be able to play,” Angping said. “Had it happened to them, they told me they’ll also appeal their case.”
Lopa, according to Dr. Alejandro Pineda of the Philippine Center for Sports Medicine, was among the six players who did not get anti-flu vaccine before leaving for Singapore.
Of the 61 athletes bound for Singapore, only 32 received anti-flu vaccine shots.
source: inquirer.net
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