SOUTH China's midfield star Leslie Santos has been ruled out of Hongkong's two World Cup warm-up matches in Singapore on April 23 and 25.
Santos, who has been plagued by injuries this season and was struggling with a thigh strain recently, hurt his knee in a match against British Forces on Monday and will not make the Singapore trip, his club announced yesterday.
His club skipper, the experienced sweeper Chan Ping-on, has a broken left arm and had already been discounted. South China have confirmed he will stay home along with Santos.
Hongkong have accepted an expenses-paid invitation by Kuwait to play two matches against the Kuwaiti national team in Singapore.
The final selection of 20 players for the Singapore trip, from the existing 28-member training squad for the World Cup, will be made next Tuesday.
Team manager Lam Kin-ming, however, pre-empted any possibility of Santos' or Chan's inclusion.
The two South China players were on the sidelines watching the action when their national squad teammates trained at the Hongkong Sports Institute in Sha Tin yesterday.
