World's number one shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei's withdrawal from the 25th South-east Asian (SEA) Games in Laos is not due to the fact that there is no cash prize given to medal winners at the meet, the Dewan Rakyat was told on Wednesday.
Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Razali Ibrahim said Chong Wei withdrew from the meet which was officially opened today because he had a recurring injury on his left knee.
"We were also surprised at Chong Wei's decision, but the withdrawal was due to the knee injury he sustained and the panel of orthopaedic specialist doctors from the National Sports Institute gave the opinion that he could not participate in the SEA games," he said when winding up the debate on the Supply Bill 2010 at the committee stage for the ministry at the Dewan Rakyat.
Razali said the knee injury sustained by the Olympic Games silver medalist was quite serious after winning the Final of the Super Masters Series where Chong Wei walked away with the US$40,000 (RM135,260) cash prize in Johor Baharu recently.
That is the trouble with Malaysian sports. You have a good player, you run him until he collapse. Now Dato Lee is injured and whose fault is it? China preserve their players and put them out in important matches. China is not obsessed by the number of matches Lin Dan plays. What China wants is for their athlete to perform well on matches that it matters.
ReplyDeleteWith the knee injury of Dato Lee, it will put him out of action for sometimes. For him to come back is not instantaneous but a gradual build up.
BAM you chaps better plamn your moves properly and you select the matches that counts. We have many younger players that needs exposure use them instead.
To those of you to even think that Dato Lee does not want to participate in the SEA Games because of money, you are unfair to Dato Lee, just give him a breakla.