KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will not rush Ng Tze Yong back into competition until he is fully fit.
The men's singles shuttler only played one full match this year, at the recent Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) in Selangor, and is out again with a lower back injury.
World No. 15 Tze Yong first sustained the injury in the opening round of the Petronas Malaysia Open last month and has yet to feature in any World Tour events since then.
National men's singles coach Tey Seu Bock does not want to speculate on the extent of Tze Yong's injury or on his chances of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
Tze Yong's dream to debut at the Olympics in July hangs in the balance, as he only has until the end of April to remain in the Race to Paris top 16 standings.
Currently, Tze Yong is five places below independent shuttler Lee Zii Jia, who is ranked No. 10 on the list.
A country can have a maximum of two singles players at the Olympics if they are in the top 16 bracket at the end of the one-year qualifying period.
When asked if Tze Yong will be fit to travel to Europe for the upcoming World Tour events, including the French Open (Mar 5-10) and the All England (Mar 12-17), Seu Bock said: "We still haven't received the full report on his condition because we have been busy with the BATC tournament. We should know by next week.
"The question now is, do we send him out for tournaments knowing he is not fit just because he is chasing Olympic ranking points, or do we focus on his recovery and send him for tournaments where he has a higher chance of doing well?
"As a coach, I believe it is important to first focus on Tze Yong's recovery, his rehabilitation, and getting him back to his confident self.
"If we send him out for tournaments not fully fit, he won't get the results either.
"Let's not focus on the Olympics just yet. Tze Yong needs to be disciplined, follow through his rehabilitation programme, and get back in shape."
On whether time was running out for the Johor-born since he only has until the end of April to make the cut for the Olympics, Seu Bock added: "Right now it's important for us to calculate his points, to see who can overtake him, and the tournaments in which he can maintain or win more points.
"It's not really about time but more about planning based on proper calculations."
As of now, Tze Yong is still in the running to make the cut and is also part of the Road to Gold (RTG) programme.