Aekapan picked up the injury during training, and it kept him out of the side that ground out an unimpressive 1-0 win over minnows Palestine on Tuesday.

The absence of Aekapan, who has formed an effective partnership with Teeratep "Leesaw" Winothai, was evident after the Kingdom's performance against Palestine, which saw Thailand fail to build on the early lead through Suchao Nutchnum's well-taken goal despite enjoying a majority of possession.

Earlier reports said that Aekapan would not be available for the Kyrgyzstan game, but the striker came through yesterday's training session unscathed.

Channel 11 and Channel 5 will televise the Thailand-Kyrgyzstan match live from 9.15pm.

Meanwhile, hapless Jordan, Thailand and Vietnam conceded 25 goals between them in their Asian Games women's football openers and now face a three-way battle to avoid the unwanted title of top of the flops. Jordan, with a batch of players who wear white headscarves and long white socks to cover the bare flesh between the knee and their shorts, are favourites to take the mantle after shipping 13 goals against Japan.

It could have been worse.

Japan had three goals disallowed while two shots came off the woodwork.

Had those attempts been successful, Jordan would have suffered the heaviest defeat in the history of the Asian Games.

As it was, the record remains the 16-0 winning margin of China over India in 1998.

"Let's be realistic," said Jordan coach Issa al Turk. "It was like a child competing against a big man."

Jordan's women are new to the international scene.

The only Arab team in the competition here, Jordan won the West Asian title and finished third in the Asian Indoor Championships last year before becoming the first Arab team to qualify for the Asian U-19 Women's Championship finals earlier this year.

But all that counted for nothing here with Mizuho Sakaguchi, with four goals, and Homare Sawa, with a hat-trick, being particularly severe.

"We are determined to get better. There are only seven women's teams in Jordan and we only have a national team, not a national under-19 team or under-16 team," added al Turk.

"A lot of the players were born after 1989. We didn't have a lot of time to select players."

Asian champions China and defending Asian Games gold medallists North Korea were also in ruthless mood.

China crushed Thailand 7-0 with North Korea seeing off Vietnam 5-0.

The Thais are looking on the bright side.

"We gained more than we lost," said Thai skipper Suphaphon Kaeobaen.

"If a world class team like China can score only four goals from open play then we can be happy."

Coach Chana Yodprang also found crumbs of comfort.

"We know we are no match for China," said Chana. "So seven goals is acceptable."

Despite the imbalance in ability and talent in Asia, there is plenty of material to work on.