3 Mainstay Players Injured, England Withdraw From Thomas Cup

Illustration of the British badminton federation (Twitter @badmintonengland)

JAKARTA - The Thomas Cup men's team championship which starts next Saturday has lost one participating country. The England team withdrew from the tournament, which was delayed by a year.

On Monday, October 4, Badminton England published a press release stating that they had withdrawn their team from the team world championships because three of the four singles players selected were injured.

Injuries to its top-ranked players meant that Badminton England could not field a competitive team and, therefore, had to make the difficult decision to withdraw from the tournament.

No country will replace England. That means, Group D will only consist of three teams: Japan, Malaysia and Canada.

While the other three groups still consist of four teams each.

Since England withdrew, it is likely that the match schedule was changed. England were originally scheduled to play on Sunday, 10 October, Tuesday (12) and Thursday (14).

The final round of the Thomas and Uber Cup 2020 which was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic will take place at Ceres Arena, Aarhus, Denmark, 9-17 October.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian team, most of which are teams competing in the Sudirman Cup in Finland, according to a press release from PP PBSI, arrived in Aarhus, Denmark, where the Thomas and Uber Cups will be held, on Tuesday afternoon local time.

According to team manager Eddy Prayitno, all team members are in good health. The players also continue to keep their spirits up to face the 2020 Thomas-Uber Cup race.

"From the faces of the players, all are so cheerful. They are also healthy and enthusiastic. This condition must be maintained until the match," said Eddy.

Indonesia has won the Thomas Cup 13 times, while China are the defending champions.

While in the Uber Cup, the defending champion is Japan. China, which has won Uber 14 times, failed to reach the final in 2018, for the first time since they started participating in the 1980s.