Hockey players begin training with basic activities

Captain Manpreet Singh, Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, Varun Kumar, Krishan Bahadur Pathak and Mandeep Singh tested positive for the virus between August 10 and 12 and were admitted to a hospital here. Five players have recovered since then, but Surender was readmitted to the hospital on Thursday after developing swelling on his arm.

The quintet may have to serve some more time in isolation before it joins its teammates. The remaining players are doing basic sports activities from Wednesday with focus on aerobic exercise.

“We will be using the next few weeks to work on everyone’s skill development while we can improve their aerobic base,” said Reid in a Hockey India (HI) release. He said the players’ actions and decisions would determine how they fare in Tokyo Olympics next year.

“I reminded the players that every action and decision we make will help us to either get closer to our Olympic goal or further away from it. I told them of the importance of the next few months in this journey,” he said.

The 56-year-old Australian said that the players were tasked to reinvigorate their Olympic goal by learning the country’s history, during the mandatory two-week quarantine period earlier this month. The players were asked to present, to the group over video conference, their learning from individual stories and how they can implement them as a team going forward.

“During the last two weeks, we used the time to learn about India’s extraordinary Olympic history,” said the head coach. “The players’ job was to study a number of the Olympic stories and present to the group their individual learnings. Going through quarantine together is something we will be able to utilise during our journey over the next 12 months,” he explained.

Currently, 33 male and 24 female players are in Bengaluru for the camp. The light intensity national camp is expected to continue till September 30.