KUALA LUMPUR – The health and well-being of national men’s singles player Ng Tze Yong is more important than participation in Olympic qualifying tournaments, said Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria today.
Tze Yong, who suffered a torn back muscle at the Malaysia Open last month, made a recovery to compete in the recently-concluded Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC).
Unfortunately, his return was short-lived as he appeared to aggravate his injury during a quarter-final clash with Singapore’s Jason Teh at the tournament.
“As everyone knows, Tze Yong suffered a serious injury and his condition is under the attention of the National Sports Institute and BAM is also monitoring his progress.
“We hope that his injury will not hinder his participation in tournaments that offer Olympic qualifying points.
“But we will prioritise Tze Yong’s health and well-being… we don’t want him to take part if it will aggravate his injury and cause it to become permanent.
“That is why we are taking a cautious approach in evaluating the medical advice.
“We will also sit down with Tze Yong and discuss with him about his condition and we won’t force him to compete if he feels he is not ready yet,” Norza told reporters after the 208th Olympic Council of Malaysia’s Executive Council meeting at Akademi Badminton Malaysia, here today.
Yesterday, local media reported that Tze Yong received pain-killing jabs so he can return to action for the French Open and All England tournaments next month.
Tze Yong is currently 16th in the Race to Paris rankings.
For a country to send two representatives to the Paris Olympics in the men’s singles event, they need to be ranked in the top 16.
Independent shuttler Lee Zii Jia is currently in 10th place.
Meanwhile, Norza said the fate of divers Datuk Pandelela Rinong Pamg and Nur Dhabitah Sabri in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme will be determined on Thursday.
“We will have a meeting on Thursday to discuss a plethora of matters with the RTG committee.
“We will listen to the report by Datuk Stuart Ramalingam, the programme coordinator, and from there we will evaluate and decide as a collective.
“I don’t want to preempt the meeting… any decisions made will be announced after it (the meeting),” added Norza. – February 24, 2024