KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's under-17 soccer team will draw inspiration from a couple of absent teammates when they take the field for the world U-17 championships in South Korea from August 18 to September 9.
Coach Colin Tuaa was forced to leave out first-choice squad members Lance Heslop and Isaac Fitzgerald, both from Central United, when he named his 21-strong World Cup squad yesterday.
Fitzgerald is undergoing chemotherapy after having a 2.2kg tumour cut out of his kidney (the organ was later removed) just days after playing in a warm-up match against the United States in Korea last month.
Heslop, meanwhile, needed two permanent plates inserted in his jaw after it was broken by a Hungarian opponent at a warm-up tournament in Japan this month.
"There's no doubt the boys will be playing for Lance and Isaac and especially so for Isaac because that was so devastating - it's certainly going to give us that little bit of extra motivation," Tuaa said.
"For a 16-year-old to have something like that is very tough to take.
"From a football point of view, he has been with us the whole way and was one of the most popular ones in the group.
"But while his dream of going to the World Cup has been shattered, it's more important that his health is now back on track."
- NZPA
