KARACHI: Pakistan began their preparations for next month’s four-nation hockey tournament in Germany here at the Hockey Club of Pakistan (HCP) Stadium on Saturday.

Three of the 37 players invited for the national training camp were absent on the opening day. Head coach Jahangir Butt, who is also the camp commandant, said that two of the absentees ñ M. Imran and Rizwan ñ will miss the initial week of the camp because they are a part of the Pakistan Army team presently competing in a tournament in South Korea.

Butt said that Karachi-based striker Shabbir Khan has expressed his inability to take part in the training camp because of fitness problems.

Imran, an experienced defender, is the vice-captain of the Pakistan team. Butt said that both the players will return home on September 9 after which they will join the camp ahead of the national trials to be held here at the HCP on September.

Pakistan will select an 18-man team after the trials for next month’s Hamburg Masters, which will also feature Olympic champions Germany, Belgium and Malaysia.

It will be Pakistan’s first international assignment after their disappointing campaign in last monthís Olympic Games in Beijing where the three-time Olympic champions finished a disappointing eighth position.

The Hamburg Masters will mark the start of a rebuilding process for Pakistan ahead of the 2010 World Cup to be held in New Delhi.

Butt said that all the 34 players who attended the camp on the opening day are fully fit. “All of them passed fitness tests this morning and we are now looking to begin training at full throttle,” said the former Olympian, who is actually the Pakistan junior team head coach. The PHF has appointed Butt as the head coach of the Hamburg-bound team as the national senior team management resigned following the Beijing debacle. Butt is being assisted by coaches Kamran Ashraf and Danish Kaleem in the camp which will conclude on September 30.