(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-25 09:28

GUANGZHOU - Athens Olympic champion Ryu Seung Min clarified here on Sunday for his South Korea teammate Oh Sang Eun who skips the just unveiled world table tennis championships citing the excuse of a shoulder injury.

"Oh was absent because he's been injured for long. That's the only thing preventing him from competing," said the 25-year-old Ryu, who won two points to help South Korea overcome Poland in their opening match of the team worlds starting on Saturday.

Veteran Oh is not the only established player to miss the worlds, as triple European champion Timo Boll of Germany has opted to rest an injured knee before cracking a shot at this summer's Beijing Olympics, and former World Cup winner Kalinikos Kreanga did not make his entry for the tournament in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Rumors have been around, however, implying that some of them were making a strategic withdrawal to spare more time for their preparations ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

Ryu hit it back with a string of "no": "No, no, no, no. He's really injured. He had an operation on his right shoulder and has been absent to training for over three months."

"We hope he could recover next month," added the eighth-ranked Korean, the No. 1 male paddler of his country after beating Chinese Wang Hao four years ago for an Olympic gold medal.

As an experienced paddler who made his name to the table tennis world in 1990s, the tall Oh held an unbeatable firm position in the South Korean national team, and many deemed it a different team with his absence.

"We are just OK without Oh. But we could come out a much stronger team in the Olympic Games table tennis competitions with a fully recovered Oh," said Ryu.

The faction between South Korea table tennis association and the national coaches, which broke out late last year and was made public with the resignations of head coaches Yoo Nam Kyu and Hyun Jung Hwa, seemed to have little effect on Ryu and his teammates with new coach Suh Sang Kil having taken the post.

"Sang is a veteran coach with a lot of experience. He'd been the head coach of the South Korean table tennis in Atlanta Olympics and also world championships in those days," commented Ryu. "He trains well and gives good advices."