"Challenging": India Hockey Coach Craig Fulton On Rape Allegations vs Varun Kumar

The rape allegation against defender Varun Kumar is a distraction for the men's hockey team and his absence from the FIH Pro League will be treated as an injury setback, India chief coach Craig Fulton said on Friday. Varun, an Arjuna award recipient, withdrew himself from the tournament after being accused of rape. He is exploring legal options to tackle the allegation, which he described as a "calculated attempt to extort money" from him. India are scheduled to take on Spain in the tournament-opener on Saturday.

"If you take it from outside and, of course, it's a challenging situation but at the same time, you've got a level of professionalism and then from a start point of view we have to have our plans in place," said Fulton during a pre-event press conference.

"So, if you took it as an injury, someone now is injured. What would you do? What are the plans in place in the event of an injury? So, Varun is not here. What is the plan? There always is a plan for anyone that gets injured for a long time... (be it) striker, mid-field or defence.

"So we're going on the level of professionalism we have in the group, the values that we hold. It's a distraction, it's challenging, it's not great but we have to move forward, we have a plan in place on how we go," the coach said.

India skipper Harmanpreet Singh hoped that Varun will get an opportunity to play in other tournaments later.

"He is in the list of 29 (probables). The coach has said it earlier that he will keep changing the team, so definitely he (Varun) can play also and definitely he will be with us also," said Harmanpreet.

On whether someone like former Indian cricket team mental trainer Paddy Upton would have come in handy at this juncture, Fulton said the team was