Weerakkody returns to Sri Lanka Sevens team

Veteran rugby Sevens player Nalaka Weerakkody has been recalled to the Sri Lanka squad for next week’s Asian Games in Qatar in a new lease of his career after the hard-running Mohamed Sheriff made himself unavailable for selection due to injury.

Weerakkody returns to the Sevens team after more than six months, a period in which he fell into a controversial disciplinary dispute with administrators and then missed the Singer SriLankan international Sevens meet this year.

The Sri Lankan squad selected last evening is made up of Sanjeewa Jayasinghe, Nalaka Weerakkody, Sajith Mallikarachchie, Fazil Marija, Dilanka Wijesekera, Amjad Buksh, Anuradha Dharmatilleke, Ashan Karthelis, Lalindra Rodrigo, Saliya Kumara, Chamara Vithanage and Isipathana schoolboy Ashan de Costa.

But Vithanage will make the tour only if he successfully passes a fitness test today over an ankle injury while Dushanth Lewke has been put on stand-by.