A Malaysian boxer will miss the Southeast Asian Games after being beaten and slashed by about 20 men brandishing "Rambo knives and liquor bottles," according to local media.

B. Perabagaran, 21, needed 50 stitches after being attacked in a public toilet in Kuala Lumpur last week, the boxer told Bernama news agency.

Perabagaran said the men, all dressed in black, gloated about the attack and asked him: "With your condition like this, how are you going to go to the SEA Games, do you think there are no boxers in Kuala Lumpur who are better qualified than you?"

"I feel these people were jealous because I was selected for the SEA Games ... It was also sad that nobody from the National Sports Council came to visit me in the hospital," he added.

The boxer said he would have to pull out of the Games and that it would take him six months to recover.

"I also want the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the NSC to investigate the incident and take the necessary action on the culprits as I do not want other boxers or athletes to suffer a similar fate," he said.