Cairo, Egypt, October 14: Egypt have lost two key players at a crucial stage of preparation for the men’s World Championships in Japan, starting November 17.
Ace attacker Mohamed Abdel Moneim and wing spiker Mahmoud Elkoumy were added to the list of absent stars in a continuation of the problems which afflicted the team on its debut World League participation this year.
Egypt had already lost four main players in the 2006 World League due to an assortment of injuries -- wing spiker Ahmed Salah, attacker Saleh Fathy, setter Mohamed Abdel Rahman and experienced captain Hamdy Elsafi -- but they started their physiotherapy four weeks ago in a bid to make the World Championships squad.
The Egyptian team will enter another stage of preparation on October 24 when they leave for Greece to participate in a preparatory tournament lasting six days.
The team has just completed the first of the three overseas camps in Poland, where they played three matches against leading Polish clubs, winning one and losing the other two. Some of the key players looked in top form, such as captain Elsafi and the promising youngster Mohamed El Daabousi, who joined the senior squad for the first time after playing a major role in his country’s victory in the African Men's Under 21 Nations Championship in Morocco in September.
The Polish head coach of Egypt, Grzegorz Rys, was happy with the return of these players, but was concerned by the absence of his main attacker, Mohamed Abdel Moneim.
"Our objective is to qualify for the second round of the World Championships, and we can only achieve this if we have a full squad of players," he said.
"We lost many key players in the World League, so we hope to have the other attackers, Ahmed Salah and Saleh Fathy, completely fit for the World Championships. We already have the team captain, Hamdy Elsafi, ready to play in top form."
Egypt, ranked 15th in the world, will play Japan, Puerto Rico, Poland, China and Argentina in Pool A, at Saitama Super Arena, 30 kilometers north of Tokyo.
