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Ki Sung-Yueng has been given an honourable discharge from Swansea City duty against Manchester City this weekend – after being called up for military service in South Korea.

Ki caught the attention in the win against West Ham last weekend, the playmaker on target while delivering a man of the match performance. It comes after a campaign where the form that won him last year’s player of the season had gone AWOL.

But he will now not be in the Swans ranks when they face Champions League-chasing City at the Liberty tomorrow having been given extra time off ahead of mandatory military conscription in his homeland.

Yet boss Francesco Guidolin has backed the 27-year-old – whose future at the Swans had been the subject of speculation – to be a midfield lieutenant in his plans going forward.

ROK Army Training Center's history, roles, military training system:

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Ki’s status as South Korea’s most high-profile footballer, national team captain and Premier League star makes no difference to the need to serve time in the country’s armed forces which applies to every male between 18 and 30. The country have applied the rule since the 1970s and are technically still at war with neighbours North Korea, the two country’s sharing what is said to be the world’s most heavily fortified border. Failure to carry out the service results in exile from the country with many having to serve at least 18 months.

Ki, however, will only have to serve four weeks this summer – likely to include basic military training – having been granted a reduction for winning an Olympic medal as part of the 2012 London Games side that defeated Team GB at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.

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Still, Guidolin is keen to allow Ki extra time off in order for him to gain some rest before his conscription before returning to South Wales for pre-season training at the start of July.

“I do like Ki,” said Guidolin. “He played very well last week in a position he is very comfortable in, but he will not play against Manchester City because he must go home for military service and we want to give him more time for some holiday.”

(Image: Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

Ki had been bracing himself to cut short his European career because of military service before securing a bronze medal at the Olympics just a month before joining the Swans in a £5.5m deal from Celtic.

He said at the time: “I was thinking I would go back to Korea to do my military service for two years, join a Korean club and then retire – but now I can change my plan.

“No-one expected us to beat Team GB so we went crazy afterwards. We’d prepared for the Olympics for three years, so we knew how big the victory was.

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“Every man has to go to the military for two years, but if you get a medal at the Olympics you go for just four weeks. If I did not win bronze I would have to go back within four years, now I can play for 10 or 12 more years. It’s good news.

“It (military service) is not that hard but you don’t get freedom and because I did well in the Olympics I have contributed to my country as a footballer I don’t have to do it.

(Image: PAUL ELLIS/AFP/GettyImages)

“If I do well in Europe it gives people hope, this move is a bonus and I will still go back to Korea one day to play.”

Other footballers have avoided military service, Norway’s John Arne-Riise escaping duty because he played abroad with Liverpool, as did the Swans’ former flying Finn Shefki Kuqi.

And the whole of South Korea’s 2002 World Cup semi-final squad – including Manchester United star Park Ji-Sung – were given a full exemption.

Ki, though, will have to serve his time before returning for Guidolin’s first full season in charge where the hope will be he can recapture the form of last term.

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He is not alone in being given time off for the final fixture of the season, Ashley Williams, Neil Taylor and Gylfi Sigurdsson all being rested – and receiving treatment – for the win over West Ham last weekend ahead of their involvement in Euro 2016 this summer.

And goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski will miss his first league match of the season as he takes a break before representing Poland in France, Swedish back-up Kristoffer Nordfeldt set to make his Premier League debut against Manuel Pellegrini’s side who need one point to seal a top-four finish.