2023 Hockey World Cup: India's Hardik Rai expresses frustration after getting ruled out due to injury
Hockey WC: Never wanted to leave the field like this, says injured Hardik Rai
The Indian men’s hockey team suffered a huge blow ahead of their next encounter against New Zealand in the ongoing 2023 Hockey World Cup as their midfielder Hardik Rai has now been ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury. It was during India’s second Pool D match against England when Hardik got injured and was thus rested for the following game against Wales. Expressing frustration over this, Hardik posted on his social media handles saying he didn’t want to leave the field like this. The management has however named Raj Kumar Pal as his replacement in the squad.
In an Instagram post, Hardik wrote, "Unfortunately, my dream of playing in the world cup ended due to a hamstring injury, and I never wanted to leave the field like this, especially in the world cup. They always say everything happens for a reason, and I am trying to figure out why, and it will take some time. It sucks that I can't repay that trust anymore and add value to the field... But OUR tournament is not over yet. It's only really starting NOW! Let’s go, boys!!!"
Meanwhile, Graham Reid, the men’s team head coach had earlier said that Hardik’s injury didn’t look as serious early on. Ruling out Hardik who scored in India’s win over Spain in their first match, Reid said it was a tough decision to make.
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"Overnight we had to make the difficult decision of replacing Hardik Singh in the Indian Team for Sunday’s match vs New Zealand and the subsequent World Cup matches," the head coach said.
Reid also showed support to Hardik, who had been incredible in the middle in both matches he played. The coach said while they would have loved to have him back on the field for the upcoming matches, being short on time prompted them to make a call on this overnight.
"While the injury was not as severe as the initial incident suggested, time was not on our side and after our ongoing thorough rehabilitation process and functional and on-field assessment today, it has been decided that we will replace Hardik with Raj Kumar Pal. While it is extremely disappointing for Hardik personally, of course, given how well he played in our first two matches, we are excited at the prospects of Raj Kumar joining the group for the remaining World Cup matches," Reid added.
India’s next match is against New Zealand on Sunday.
