Kenya Sevens playmaker Sammy Oliech has been ruled out of the Tokyo Olympic Games with an Achilles injury sustained during the Emirates Invitational tournament held in Dubai earlier this month.
The Impala utility back, who recently rejoined the team, is set to sit out the remainder of the year as he recovers from the injury and the earliest he can start training, if all goes well, is in January next year according to team manager Eric Ogweno.
Oliech was keen to play in his second Olympic tournament, having played at the Rio Olympics four years ago, and was using the two tournaments in Dubai to gauge his form and fitness in his quest to be part of Innocent Simiyu's plan for the Tokyo extravaganza in three months.
Ogweno said the Achilles injuries are sensitive and must be treated with caution.
“It's a very sensitive part of the leg and we can't speed up the process. Oliech is young and has time on his side and if he recovers well, he will play again early next year,” said Ogweno.
Ogweno said the rest of the players are fully fit with minor knocks from the tournament.
The team has camped at Moi Stadium, Kasarani where they will train for the next two and half weeks before departing for an invitational tournament in South Africa, where they will be up against hosts South Africa (two teams), Zimbabwe and Uganda.
Ogweno said the Madrid and Dubai tournaments (played in February and April respectively) were used for gelling purposes and asked rugby-mad Kenya Sevens fans to be patient with the team.
“For me, the two tournaments were more of training camps; looking at combinations, fitness and getting the players to a high-performance training environment. We have another tournament in Los Angeles in June line up and which will be key to our Olympic final touches,” noted Ogweno.
After the Los Angeles tournament, the final 12-man team will be named and will then heed to Kurume City, Japan for a two-week training camp before joining the rest of the Kenyan contingent in Tokyo for the Olympics, which start on July 23.