Champions Challenge Hockey: Rupinder Pal injury concern ahead of semi-finals

Rupinder Pal Singh’s knee injury appears to be beleaguering India ahead of their highly anticipated semi final clash with host nation South Africa on Saturday. He was stretchered off during the quarter finals win over Malaysia, after colliding with an opposition player on the field. Rupinder has been a consistent penalty corner star for India. Since he has not fully recovered from his knee injury, Michael Nobbs is still considering whether to or not to play Rupinder in the semis.

“We’ll see how he’s feeling tonight, by when he would have had a full day’s rest. His injury will be examined again as we want to take no chances.”

Rupinder’s penalty corner role in this tournament has limited due to the presence of Sandeep Singh and Raghunath, but his resilience at the back has been an advantage for Nobbs’s men.

India have been pretty impressive in the tournament so far, staying unbeaten while also scoring a total of 22 goals in four matches. After kick starting their campaign with a 3-3 draw with Belgium, they showed great maturity to overcome South Africa by a scoreline of 7-4 before thrashing Poland 7-0 in their next game.

Their quarter final game against Malaysia was perhaps the match of the tournament so far, with both sides showing plenty of courage and determination to fight till death. Nevertheless, India progressed after edging Malaysia slightly and booked a spot in the semi finals, where they are scheduled to take on South Africa once again.

However, their defensive side has been a cause for concerns with them leaking in plenty of goals throughout the tournament and they would be banking on the attacking trio of Shivender, Sunil and Tushar to send them into the finals.