Okada orders players to use oxygen tanks
Reuters - Tuesday 13 April 2010, 11:38
TOKYO - Japan coach Takeshi Okada has
ordered his players to use oxygen tanks ahead of the World Cup
to build up their high-altitude resistance.
Local media reported that Okada, whose team play two of
their Group E games at more than 1,000 metres above sea level in
South Africa in June, would ask his players to use the aparatus
daily.
"After the squad is named I will get the players to use
oxygen masks in small doses for an hour a day," Okada told the
Nikkan Sports.
"They can use the tanks while watching TV."
Japan face World Cup-bound South Korea at home on May 24
before flying to Europe for warm-up matches against England in
Austria on May 30 and Ivory Coast in Switzerland on June 4.
The Blue Samurai, who have never won a game at a World Cup
tournament on foreign soil, have been drawn against Cameroon,
Netherlands and Denmark in Group E.
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