Three players from the Sri Lanka U19 rugby team competing in the Asia Rugby championship in Malaysia at the moment have been admitted in the local hospital whilst three others including Asst Coach Henry Terrence are said to be suffering from heavy fever.
Shalindra Alahakoon (Trinity College, No8), Adeesha Weerathunga (Isiathana College, Flanker), Udaya Supun (Prince of Wales College, Lock) have been severely affected with high fever and vomiting. Trinity no8 was in the starting line-up on Wednesday’s Hong Kong clash but was replaced by Thomian Danuja Wijeratne just before warm-ups, due to fever.
When ThePapare.com visited the hospital all the said players were in the emergency unit receiving treatment. Dr. Azlin who is the tournament doctor said that “We are still working on finding what the root cause is and the players were given the necessary treatments, however, we still don’t know whether it’s a food poison or some other infection.” He further said by tomorrow Asia Rugby should be able to give an official statement on this.
Moreover, Gayan Wickramaratne (Isipathana College, Full back) and Janith Laksara (Science College, Flanker) are also reported to running a high fever and diarrhea alongside assistant coach Henry Terrence. A few other players were also reported to be feeling feverish.
Sri Lanka will play a survival battle in the Asia rugby U19 championship top division, unless they win over Chinese Taipei this Saturday. Danuja Wijeratne just played 5minutes against Hong Kong and was concussed so he may miss the final game.
Meanwhile, Isipathana prop forward Isuru Udayanga will be flying from Colombo as a replacement.
Stay tuned with ThePapare.com as we will be keeping a tab on the boys and bringing you the latest.
