Revington says squad must stick together to recover from tragedy

Chief minister Datuk Idris Haron paying tribute to the late Chua Boon Huat.

KUALA LUMPUR: The national hockey players and officials are still “shattered” and “shocked” over the death of Chua Boon Huat.

The 33-year-old forward, the most capped player in the national team, died in a car accident along the Damansara-Puchong Highway at 3am on Thursday.

National coach Paul Revington said that the players had a gym training in Bukit Jalil yesterday morning and they were all “absolutely still in shock”.

“We need to go through this together,” said the South African coach.

The players had a light training session at the National Hockey Stadium in Bukit Jalil after breaking fast earlier in the day.

Revington said that all the players would attend Boon Huat’s funeral in Malacca on Monday.

The 25 players in the training squad are preparing for the Asia Cup in Ipoh from Aug 24-Sept 1.

Eight teams will feature in the tournament. Malaysia are in Group A with Pakistan, Japan and Taiwan while defending champions South Korea, India, Bangladesh and Oman are in Group B.

Malaysia must win to seal a place in next year’s World Cup in The Hague, Holland.

National assistant coach S. Arul Selvaraj, who broke down at the University Hospital mortuary on Thursday, said that goalkeeper Roslan Jamaluddin was most affected by Boon Huat’s death.

“Roslan and Boon Huat were good buddies as they played together for Malaysia in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and won the silver medal,” said Arul.

“Roslan just couldn’t believe that Boon Huat is dead ... he is still in a state of shock.”

Arul said that he would discuss with Revington whether to call up another player.

“We only have three more weeks to prepare for the Asia Cup and will start our normal training tomorrow,” he said.

“We may train on Sunday as the players will take a break on Monday to attend the funeral.”