AFF U23 Championship: Vietnam make six changes to the squad due to Covid-19 complications

The Vietnam contingent is the latest victim of the Covid-19 virus in the ongoing AFF U-23 Championship. Earlier, Myanmar and Indonesia had to withdraw from the tournament after a number of players and staff members got infected.

Now, the Golden Star Warriors have to replace six of the players after they turned out to be Covid-19 positive. They are as follows:

1. Player Phan Tuan Tai will replace player Nguyen Van Son (Jersey no. 21)

2. Player Dinh Quy will replace player Nguyen Ngoc Thang (Jersey no. 24)

3. Player Vu Dinh Hai will replace player Dinh Xuan Tien (Jersey no. 10)

4. Player Huynh Tien Dai will replace player Bui Anh Thong (Jersey no. 18)

5. Player Nguyen Thanh Nhan will replace player Vu Tien Long (Jersey no. 27)

6. Player Tran Bao Toan will replace player Vo Minh Trong (Jersey no. 4)

The six replacement players are expected to arrive in Cambodia tomorrow (22 February 2022) late afternoon and travel directly to Prince Stadium for the match between Vietnam and Thailand.

Vietnam become the first participating team to make use of the rule relaxation to replace players by the  AFF Tournament Committee.

They have amended article 33.4 of the tournament regulations and that now allows a team to replace a player from the final registration, with 12 hours’ notice to the AFF Secretariat. Such replacement players need not necessarily be registered in the preliminary registration list.

A total of 10 players can be replaced by a team for the entire duration of the competition. However, the replaced players would not be allowed to participate in the Competition again and their names would be struck off from the team list for the remainder of the Competition.