Thai cave boys leave hospital ahead of press meet

Chiang Rai: Twelve boys and their football coach who survived a highly dangerous and dramatic rescue from a flooded Thai cave were discharged from hospital on Wednesday ahead of a press conference where they will tell their incredible story for the first time.
An AFP correspondent on the scene saw the team, who were wearing football kits, board three minibuses at the hospital in northern Thailand’s Chiang Rai province.
The footballers from the “Wild Boars” club are being discharged a day earlier than previously announced, with authorities hoping a question and answer session will satisfy — at least temporarily — the intense media speculation that has accompanied their epic underground ordeal. The boys are due to return to their homes later on Wednesday.
“The reason to hold this evening press conference is so media can ask them questions and after that they can go back to live their normal lives without media bothering them,” Thailand’s chief government spokesman Sunsern Kaewkumnerd told AFP.
Called “Sending the Wild Boars Home” and broadcast on major television channels, the session will last for about 45 minutes, Sunsern said, adding that it would be conducted in an informal style with a moderator.
The briefing will be closely monitored, with experts warning of possible long-term distress from the more than two weeks they spent trapped inside a cramped, flooded chamber of the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand.
The public relations department in Chiang Rai province solicited questions from news outlets in advance and they will be forwarded to psychiatrists for screening.
Thailand’s junta leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha urged media on Wednesday to be “cautious in asking unimportant questions” that could cause unspecified damage.
But the organisers have also set up a small makeshift football pitch at the press conference and the boys are expected to kick a ball around at the event.
Interest in the saga is unlikely to abate, with film production houses already eyeing a Hollywood treatment of the drama.
Doctors have advised families of the players, aged 11 to 16, that they should avoid letting them contact journalists for at least one month.
Though the boys and coach are said to be in good mental and physical health, they will be provided with additional psychological monitoring to detect lingering trauma. Families of the youngsters are eagerly awaiting the homecoming. (AFP)