A report emerging from the Thai national team camp said that attacking midfielder Ekanit, who was injured during a training session for the ASEAN championship recently, is likely to miss playing for the rest of the tournament.
The 25-year-old Ekanit did not play for the War Elephant during the group stage matches because of the injury sustained while training, reports the Bangkok Post.
He did not train with the team as the report said his injury would take weeks to heal, indicating that the midfielder is expected to miss the entire event.
Defending champions Thailand are training for the first leg of their ASEAN championship semi-final against the Philippines away at Manila’s Rizal Memorial Stadium tonight (Dec 27).
Supachok and Benjamin, the two forwards who had also been nursing injuries, resumed full training on Tuesday.
However, there was no confirmation from the Thai national team management if the duo will be available for selection for the game in Manila.
The game will be played on an artificial grass pitch.
Thailand left wing back Thitathon Aksornsri said he aims to help the team win the first leg of the semi-final against the Philippines.
The 27-year-old Thitathon said: “Right now, we are ready for the semi-final. We are fully rested and are back to training now.
“I think an artificial pitch is quite different from a pitch with real grass and such artificial surfaces aren’t used anymore these days.
“We have to adjust in training, especially in passing the ball and almost every other thing, which may affect the team’s performance.
“I believe that everyone will be able to adjust because we have to play on the surface.”
Earlier, another Thailand midfielder, Worachit Kanitsribumphen, had said he believed the War Elephants would not have any problems taking on the Philippines on artificial grass surface.
Such sentiments were echoed by Thailand national tean coach Masatada Ishii on Wednesday (Dec 25) who said he is not worried about the artificial grass pitch at Manila’s Rizal Memorial Stadium anymore.
“We had more time to prepare the team than the preliminary round games,” he said, adding: “Yesterday [Tuesday], we trained very hard and were able to work on the finer details of the gameplan.
“We also had two days to train the team on an artificial pitch, so I think it will not be a problem.
“The fitness level of the players is also getting better.
“We played the Philippines in the King’s Cup, but they seem to have improved a great deal since then. They have a Spanish coach and are very strong in defence.”
The match will kick off at 8pm (Thai time) today and will be televised live by Thai Rath TV (32), AIS Play, True Sport 2 (667) and the BG Sports Channel on YouTube.
Thailand topped the Group A standings after four straight victories over Timor Leste, Malaysia, Singapore and Cambodia. The Thais had recovered from two goals down to beat Singapore 4-2 in the away game.
The Philippines reached the last four stage of the regional championship after finishing runners-up in Group B.