KUALA LUMPUR: Former national football ace Datuk Zainal Abidin Hassan has described the injury to Harimau Malaya midfielder Endrick Dos Santos as a big blow ahead of their opening 2023 Asian Cup tie against Jordan on Monday (Jan 15).
However, Zainal Abidin believes that head coach Kim Pan Gon will come up with the right strategy by employing either Brendan Gan or Muhammad Afiq Fazail in the vacant midfield position.
Endrick, 29, is reported to have suffered a leg injury during the team’s training session here and had to sit out the friendly against Syria on Tuesday (Jan 9), which ended 2-2.
“This is the nature of the game and I can’t deny that it (Endrick’s absence) will be sorely felt. But we must have plan A and plan B. We can’t just wave the white flag and I am confident Pan Gon will not be focusing on the starting XI only.
“When Endrick got injured, he (Pan Gon) would have worked out another plan to get his team to play to the system that he wants,” Zainal Abidin said as a guest on Bernama TV’s ‘Hayya Asia Qatar 2023’ programme today.
However, the former Selangor and Pahang player did not rule out the possibility that this could just be the South Korean coach playing mind games with the opposition.
Malaysia, who ended a 42-year wait to qualify for the Asian Cup on merit, will begin their Group E campaign against Jordan on Monday (Jan 15) before taking on Bahrain on Jan 20 and two-time champions South Korea on Jan 25.
Only the top two teams from each group and the four best third-placed teams will advance to the last 16 in Doha.
This is Malaysia’s fourth appearance in the Asian Cup after qualifying on merit for three other editions – Iran in 1976; Kuwait in 1980 and as joint hosts with Singapore in 2007 – but they have never advanced to the round of 16.
Get the latest news and information on the 2023 Asian Cup at asiancup.bernama.com. –Bernama
