Star defender misses out on national team training

Hau tore his meniscus during training last week with Hanoi FC, who reported his condition to coach Park Hang-seo. On Thursday, Park agreed to let Hau remain with the club and miss out on national team training on December 6. However, the coach required regular updates on Hau’s condition.

The 21-year-old left-back will have to sit out at least three to four months to recover. With this injury, Hau will miss the first few rounds of 2021 V. League 1 and possibly Vietnam’s important World Cup 2022 Asian qualifier against Malaysia in early March, and even AFF Cup in April.

Hau is one of the most talented Vietnamese footballers in his position, proving vital to Vietnam's national football team under Parks lead. He was part of the squad for U20 World Cup 2017 in South Korea. In 2018, Hau helped the U23 team finish second at AFC U23 Championship. He won AFF Cup with the national team in the same year before winning their first SEA Games gold last year.

2020 has not been an easy year for Hau. He parted ways with Dutch club SC Heerenveen earlier in July after an unsuccessful loan spell and returned to Hanoi, where he got his meniscus torn. He could only return to play on November 4 before catching up with the same injury again.

Vietnam’s national team will have their first training of 2020 from December 6 to 28 in Hanoi. The squad have yet to train together this year since all international tournaments were postponed because of Covid-19. During training, Park will evaluate 36 players, including familar faces and newbies, in order to prepare for Vietnam’s main 2021 goals - qualifying for World Cup qualifiers and defending AFF Cup championship.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Golden Dragons cannot play any international friendlies, and will face the U23 team twice instead.