By Wang Meng Meng

Tingling with anticipation over the inaugural Asian Youth Games (AYG), the last thing the Philippine football team wanted was to have the Influenza A (H1N1) virus dashing its hopes.

But that became a reality yesterday when one of the boys in the 14 and under squad was found to be infected. As a precaution, the rest of the team had to be quarantined, with their matches postponed indefinitely.

'Depressing' was how Philippine deputy chef-de-mission Jose Mari Martinez summed up the mood of the players, who were only informed at 3.30pm - 11/2 hours before their opening match against Chinese Taipei - of their quarantine.

Mr Martinez, who is also president of the Philippine Football Federation, said the team was pessimistic about even playing a match.

He said: 'The players and their parents are all extremely upset with the situation.

'The boys had been at a 30-day training camp in Manila just before they came to Singapore. They were looking forward to having a good tournament. To find out that they are not playing is a real blow to their spirit.'

Ms Rachel Genco, whose son Carmelo is a striker in the team, said he had been 'extremely psyched up' to play in the AYG, where the Philippines are in GroupA of the qualifiers alongside Chinese Taipei and Iran.

Apart from the training camp, she had sent Carmelo for a two-month stint at former Italy striker Salvatore Schillaci's academy in Palermo.

Ms Genco said she understood the need to be cautious, but was still sad that she could not say a proper goodbye before her son boarded the bus to the Aloha Loyang Resort to be quarantined.

'We had to stand some distance away,' she said yesterday evening, between replying to text messages from her son. 'We couldn't even hug or kiss them goodbye.'

Mr Martinez praised the organisers for their swift response.

He said: 'We are happy that our players and officials are being treated very well during the quarantine.

'The H1N1 situation cannot be helped. The organisers are doing their best to contain the virus.

'But I really hope the organisers can let these boys play. Perhaps, they can prolong the competition a little and wait for the team's quarantine period to be over.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.