Mid-fielder Hardik Singh unlikely for match against Wales

ROURKELA: Indian hockey team has been hit with a big blow ahead of their Pool D match to be played against Wales to be played at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar on Thursday as centre mid-fielder Hardik Singh is highly unlikely due to hamstring injury.

As per sources, Hardik Singh is yet to recover from the hamstring injury he sustained in the Pool D match against England which ended in a 0-0 draw.

The Indian team management is likely to replace Hardik with Rajkumar Pal or Jugraj Singh who are in the list of reserve players.

The 24-year-old midfielder has been in terrific form as he scored a brilliant solo goal in the match against Spain in their first Pool D match played at Birsa Munda Stadium in Rourkela where the hosts won 2-0.

India are currently placed second in Pool D behind England with both teams having four points each in two games but the English side is ahead due to better goal difference.

England will take on Spain in the last pool match on Thursday and if they manage to win it then the match against Wales will become a crucial encounter for India and the Harmanpreet Singh led side will have to beat Wales by a bigger margin in order to top the pool table.

The team that tops their pool table will avoid the cross over match and straight away play in the quarter-final match. Both India and England are looking to finish on top of the pool D in order to avoid the cross-over.

India hockey squad: Abhishek, Surender Kumar, Manpreet Singh, Hardik Singh, Jarmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh, Harmanpreet Singh (captain), Lalit Upadhyay, Krishan Pathak, Nilam Sanjeep Xess, PR Sreejesh, Nilakanta Sharma, Shamsher Singh, Varun Kumar, Akashdeep Singh, Amit Rohidas (vice-captain), Vivek Sagar Prasad and Sukhjeet Singh. Reserve players: Jugraj Singh and Rajkumar Pal.