V for victory... the first picture
GRINNING and making victory signs, these are the young Thai footballers reunited in hospital.
The first picture of the schoolboys since their release shows them wearing green surgical masks as they recover in a pristine isolation ward.
Although the boys look thin, they do not appear shell-shocked despite their ordeal. The children and their coach lost an average of 2kg each but are generally in good condition.
Footage released by the Thai government
shows some parents weeping and waving to the boys from the other side of the isolation windows.
Parents of the first eight boys freed have been able to visit them but were banned from hugs and had to wear protective suits and stand two metres away as a precaution against infection. One from the last group rescued on Tuesday had a lung infection.
The footage was shown during a press conference at which the rescue chief, Narongsak Osottanakorn
said he believed the Wild Boar FC players would ‘grow up to be good citizens’, and added that they are ‘healthy and strong’.
‘We don’t see the children as at fault or as heroes,’ he said. ‘They are children being children, it was an accident.’
Hospital director Chaiwetch Thanapaisal said the boys would have to stay in hospital for up to ten days. They would then need to recuperate at home for 30 days.