AARHUS (Denmark), Oct 7 — Physically, the national Thomas and Uber Cup shuttlers are in the best shape. It is their mental preparation that Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) coaching director Wong Choong Hann is worried about.

With the 2020 Thomas/Uber Cup Finals starting here on Saturday, he is worried as to how his young charges, with an average age of 22, will handle all the euphoria of having clinched a bronze in the mixed team Sudirman Cup competition in Vantaa, Finland last Saturday.

Choong Hann confirmed that the majority of his shuttlers are injury-free, except for women’s doubles player Pearly Tan, who is still being assessed after complaining of slight discomfort in her arm.

"I believe the players have had sufficient time to recover after equalling the country’s best-ever achievement in the Sudirman Cup (at the 2009 edition in Guangzhou, China).

"Physically, I believe they will be able to overcome any tiredness they are feeling as long as they can recover mentally because, for most of them, this is their first time competing at such a high level. They must learn to handle such situations,” he said when met during the national shuttlers’ first official practice at the Ceres Arena here today.

Following the withdrawal of Groud D rivals England in the Thomas Cup, Choong Hann admitted that the coaches have gone back to the drawing board to decide whether to give the younger players a chance to gain exposure or to stick with the first-choice players so as to ensure victory over Canada on Tuesday.

For surely a win over the Canadians will put the Malaysian men in the right frame of mind when they take on Group D favourites and 2018 Thomas Cup runners-up Japan, led by skipper and world number one Kento Momota, next.

"Since we still have quite some time to go before our first match, we must also manage our training schedule properly because normally during match week, there will be complications in terms of getting the courts and conducting training sessions.

"We will fully utilise our sports science team to assist our coaches in drawing up the training programmes so that our players will be at the optimum level.

"We will focus on our teams’ training and try to get our young players to watch some of the top-class matches between certain players and countries so that they can learn a few things as well as soak in the atmosphere,” he said, adding that he would not rule out the possibility of fielding scratch pairs.

The former world number one shuttler, who was full of praise for the detailed preparation of the organisers, also said that he is not too worried about the home crowd when Malaysia take on the hosts in the Uber Cup on the opening day on Saturday as "they are ‘silent’ compared to Malaysian and Asian fans”.

That’s probably because the crowd factor was among the aspects that had been discussed by coaches and the matter was addressed by holding simulation matches for the shuttlers to be prepared for such situations. — Bernama