Tze Yong Back In Training, Targets April Comeback

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 (Bernama) -- In his bid for a comeback in April, national men’s singles shuttler Ng Tze Yong has resumed training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara since last week.

However, the 25-year-old admitted that he still experiences some trauma whenever he feels pain during training. As a result, his sessions are limited to under an hour to avoid overtraining and to ensure a smooth recovery process.

“In a week, I manage to train three times, as I also have sessions at the National Sports Institute. I can go through full training sessions, but they are not too long, about an hour.

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“The trauma is still there, though not too much. But whenever there’s pain, I do feel it. Still, I’m staying positive since I’m back on court,” he told reporters at ABM in Bukit Kiara today.

Tze Yong, who used to be Malaysia's second-best player after Lee Zii Jia, only competed in three tournaments last season before being forced into a long break following surgery for a back injury.

"My condition is improving, about 60 per cent now, but we will have to see how things go. I’m targeting an April return and will use my ranking protection to compete for six months," he said.

Previously, national singles coach Kenneth Jonassen stated that Tze Yong must compete in at least one tournament before the end of April to maintain his world ranking at number 18 for another six months.

If he fails to do so, he will lose all his ranking points, drop out of the rankings entirely, and be forced to restart from scratch.

-- BERNAMA