Temporary relief for five players

Hockey India on Tuesday lifted the temporary suspension imposed on the five players who walked out of the National probables camp here to attend Indian Hockey Federation’s World Series Hockey press conference last Thursday.

“The five players — Arjun Halappa, Prabhjot Singh, Adrian D’Souza, Sardar Singh and Sandeep Singh — have been provisionally granted permission to resume their training from tomorrow (Wednesday),” said HI Executive Director Anupam Gulati. “The five players have also been issued a show-cause notice to which they need to reply by August 2.

“The chairman of the Disciplinary Committee (Pargat Singh) will then go through their reply before announcing the next course of action. Therefore, the players have been allowed to attend the remaining portion of the first phase of the camp that concludes on July 31,” added Gulati.

Temporarily barred from training, the five players had been cooling their heels in the hostel for the last three days. The impasse was finally resolved when then warring factions HI and IHF agreed to jointly work together under a temporary arrangement on Monday.

‘Tough for them’

Meanwhile, the hockey team’s exercise physiologist David John said the six-day absence from training might prove costly for the five players and they could find themselves missing the Asian Champions Trophy in September.

“They have missed out on the drills for many days now and I feel it will be tough for them to be up to the mark in the coming weeks,” John said after a training session. “This may prove expensive and they may even miss the Asian Champions Trophy in Ordos, China.

“They have just about three or four days to go for the camp to end. Even if they begin working on their fitness during the break, which stretches for a week beginning August 1, I don’t see them making a big headway unless they really stretch themselves out,” added the hard-working Australian.

“Arjun is carrying a groin injury and has been out of action ever since he joined the camp. Sardar had about 3-4 days of practice. He was out (with a viral infection) and missed the training session. In the tests that we conducted, Sandeep and Prabhjot were just about average. Adrian’s test results were good. That gives us an idea how they would fare in the coming weeks.” The first phase of the camp will wind up on Saturday evening. The second phase starts on August 8.