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The 12 boys and their football coach rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand will watch a recording of Sunday's World Cup final, not the live broadcast, an official at the hospital they are staying in said. "Given that the final will be broadcast quite late our time and we want the boys to rest and not to be looking at screens too much, we will probably record the final and show it to them later," the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital official said. The official declined to be identified as she is not authorised to speak to media. France play Croatia in the World Cup final in Moscow on Sunday at 10 p.m. local time in Thailand. FIFA, world football's governing body, had invited the boys and their coach to attend the final in Moscow, but they could not go for medical reasons. The Wild Boars team and their coach spent more than two weeks trapped inside a flooded cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai.
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They have been recovering in the hospital since they were rescued over a span of three days last week and will be discharged Thursday. The boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25-year-old coach had planned to explore the Tham Luan Nang Non cave complex for about an hour after practice June 23. But a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels, trapping them. Two British divers found them on July 2, squatting on a mound in a flooded chamber several kilometres inside the complex. Rescuers then had to work out how to get them out through the flooded tunnels. All 13 were brought to safety in a perilous rescue organised by Thai navy SEALs and an international team of cave-diving experts. The rescue was greeted with joy by some of the world's biggest football clubs. Last week, Manchester United invited the Wild Boars to watch a match at Old Trafford. About 4,000 volunteers on Sunday were taking part in a clean-up of the area around the Tham Luan Nang Non cave.
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