The 26-year-old has been in intensive care following the incident that took place last week at a shopping mall outside the country's capital Kuala Lumpur. Not only has the attack had a huge impact on the nation, it has disrupted the scheduled start of the football season which kicks-off this weekend following a string of violent incidents involving players.

Faisal suffered fourth-degree burns, affecting his mobility and speech, mere days after his Malaysia teammate Akhyar Rashid was injured in a robbery outside his residence in the eastern state of Terengganu.

"Faisal had a three-hour skin allograft surgery in various burnt areas of his body last night," Shahril Mokhtar, deputy president of the Selangor football association, revealed on Friday. 

"Though the next few days will be critical days because doctors have to monitor the reaction of the reconstructive surgery. Nonetheless, everything looks good and promising," he later added. 

Shahril mentioned that he will continue to stay in an intensive care unit and undergo one additional allograft surgery. The procedure will involve applying a skin patch that has been transported from Belgium. Malaysia's domestic football season was set to kick off on Friday with a match between Faisal's Selangor and Super League champions Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT). However, Selangor withdrew from the match, citing "a series of criminal incidents and recent threats".

In another incident on Tuesday, JDT's former Malaysia captain Safiq Rahim narrowly escaped harm after being threatened with a hammer and having his car windscreen smashed by two attackers. The motive behind the attack on him remains unknown, and two suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident. One has been released, while the other is still under investigation, according to authorities.

Police have collected fingerprints from a suspect at the mall where the attack occurred and are analysing them to aid in the search, local media reported on Thursday.