Striker Sukhjeet wants to cement his place in Indian hockey team

Sukhjeet Singh, who braved a career-threatening back injury four years ago, made a successful India debut here last month and is now eyeing to hold on to his spot in the national senior hockey team. Sukhjeet received his first-ever call-up for the senior National camp in 2018, but failed to make that opportunity count after sustaining a back injury during a routine recovery process and eventually found himself out of the 33-member core group. But he didn't give up hope and showed a lot of grit and determination to claw his way back into the reckoning.

"It was a very bad phase of my life. I was bed-ridden for almost five months and the recovery process was very challenging. Whenever I felt like I was losing hope of making a comeback in hockey, my family and friends stood by me to support me and motivate me.

"They always believed I had it in me to make the India cut someday," said Sukhjeet, who made his India debut at the recent FIH Hockey Pro League tie against Spain at the Kalinga Stadium. Sukhjeet believes in his potential and is looking forward to becoming an integral part of the team in the upcoming big-ticket events, including the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year. "When I came into the camp earlier this year, I had to work on understanding the structure of how the senior team plays and I would often pick Mandeep and Lalit's brains.

I would ask them questions about the structure the forwardline maintains and they were very helpful in getting me up to speed. It feels great that I got a chance to play for India and I look forward to making this opportunity count," Sukhjeet said. Jalandhar-born Sukhjeet started playing hockey at the tender age of six after his father Ajit Singh, a former hockey