Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-Min left his club’s camp in London and took a trip to Indonesia, for Asian Games.

After being granted permission by Tottenham to pursue a gold medal that would earn him an exemption from Military service, the 26-year-old finally made his appearance as a 57th-minute substitute in Korea’s second group game.

In their first group game, Korea beat Bahrain with 6-0 score. But in the second game, they were defeated by Malaysia with 2-1.

Korea Head coach Kim Hak-bum admitted that he made a tactical error by not starting with his best players for the match.

“I apologise to all Koreans for my blunder and the defeat. It is my mistake.

“But I believe we will still go through. We, however, will have a difficult pathway in the knockout stages as we have lost a group match,” he said.

On Heung-min’s limited playing time, Hak-bum said he has only been with the squad for a few days.

The last group stage game for Korea was against Kyrgyzstan. And Son Heung Min captained his national team starting from the first minutes. Son has scored a goal in a 63th minute of the game to secure his team’s win over Kyrgyzstan.

With 6 points Korea is in the second place in the E group. Malaysia is in the first place.

The top two teams from each group and the four best-performing third-placed teams will advance to the last-16 stage.