Sreejesh has knee surgery, to miss Asia Cup
India’s No 1 hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will be sidelined for at least five months following a knee surgery and is set to miss the Asia Cup to be held in Dhaka in October.
Sreejesh, who missed the Hockey World League Semi-Final in London, where India finished sixth, underwent surgery in Mumbai this month for a right knee ligament tear suffered during the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April-May.
Indian hockey’s high performance director David John said Sreejesh will take at least five months to return to full fitness, which means he has a bright chance of returning for the Hockey World League Final in Bhubaneswar in December.
“Sreejesh will definitely miss the Asia Cup but we will try our best to make him fully fit before the Hockey World League Final. But it also give us time to develop our reserve keepers,” he said.
The Indian men and women missed out on the podium with both finishing fourth at the World Team Chess Championships here.
In the last round, the men and women beat Norway and Azerbaijan respectively. But the men lost the previous round to Russia 2.5-1.5, which cost a medal.
The women beat Vietnam in the penultimate round with D Harika and Tania Sachdev fighting back to win from lost positions.
India shooters continued their fine show and won a bronze medal in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol team event at the junior world championship rifle/ pistol in Suhl, Germany on Monday.
The trio of Anish, Anhad Jawanda and Shivam Shukla notched up a combined score of 1711 to claim third place. It took India’s overall tally from the competition to two gold, one silver and one bronze medal.
This was Anish’s second medal after he had won the 25m standard pistol gold.