Late in the evening of October 4, the Chinese footballers started an intense outdoor training session at the Khalid bin Mohammed Stadium in Sharjah. Just as early as that morning, La Liga star Wu Lei of FC Espanyol, who had just returned to the team, joined in the training, and his dedication won the respect of the whole team.
In the blink of an eye, the memories of October 3 are still fresh. Wu Lei played more than 30 minutes as a substitute in a La Liga match between Espanyol and rivals Real Madrid. As soon as the game was over, he headed to the airport for his trip to the United Arab Emirates. He arrived in Dubai early in the morning of the 4th local time.
The time difference between Spain and the UAE is two hours. In order to quickly adapt to the training environment, Wu Lei gave up his lunch break after dining with the Chinese team and planned to rest as early as possible that night in order to adjust to the time difference as soon as possible.
With the national soccer team's upcoming Round of 12 match against Vietnam on the evening of the 7th, along with the training on that day, the team only had three outdoor training opportunities before the match. In this urgent situation, Wu Lei took the initiative to request to participate in the training on the evening of the 4th, in order to cooperate with the team to carry out technical and tactical exercises. His determination and attitude also deeply touched every member of the team, including head coach Li Tie.
Before the official start of the training on the evening of the 4th, Li Tie personally applauded the return of Wu Lei. It is reported that from the warm-up to the group confrontation training, Wu Lei has been working side by side with his teammates. At present, it seems that Wu Lei in the 7 days of the game to occupy the starting seat almost has become a certainty.
However, in view of the fact that Wu Lei had just participated in the La Liga match the day before and had traveled a long distance, the coaching team decided to stop his training near the end of the group confrontation and arranged for him to go to the sidelines for individual recovery training. The coaching staff's decision is obviously to protect the health of Wu Lei.
Li Lei, the left back who was previously recuperating from a serious injury, has regained his health after a period of recuperation. However, as he has not been able to participate in the joint practice for a long time, the coaching team still arranged for him to have a separate training on the sidelines.
Defender Gao Junyi, who stayed at the hotel a day earlier to make adjustments due to muscle tightness, joined the Chinese team for the entirety of their joint practice on the evening of the 4th, showing that he is fully capable of featuring in the China-Vietnam match on the evening of the 7th.
As for whether Zhu Chenjie, who suffered a traumatic injury, will be able to participate in the game, there is still uncertainty. He has not been able to participate in outdoor training for three consecutive days after he was injured in the warm-up match between China and Syria and received treatment to close his wound.
