Manpreet Singh nears India cap record amid unclear future with national team

BHUBANESWAR: Manpreet Singh is 33, but more importantly the Indian midfielder is 411 matches old. He needs to play just two more international games to go past Dilip Tirkey’s long-standing record of 412 matches and become India’s most-capped hockey player of all time.What should ideally be a feat that should be celebrated, especially how Manpreet has been central to India’s hockey resurgence in the past decade, is instead turning out to be something else altogether, with talk getting louder in hockey circles that he won’t be selected for India’s upcoming Pro League matches in Rourkela. The hosts will play four matches during the mini-tournament, twice against Belgium and Argentina. The squad could be announced early next week for the Feb 10-15 tournament.The man in question himself hinted on Friday that his hockey career could be coming to a much-premature end when he said, “I have lots of love for Ranchi. I had started playing for them when HIL began and my hockey might end with them.”Pivotal in helping the Ranchi Royals make it to the Hockey India League playoffs this season, Manpreet has continued to impress India head coach Craig Fulton with his performance over the past few weeks.“You can have a look at how Manpreet is playing, like his level. I haven’t seen him move like this for a long time,” said Fulton in Bhubaneswar, “From Paris (onwards) he had a really good tournament. Last year, it didn’t work for the team he was in, but he still performed well.”Besides the HIL last year, Manpreet played in 15 Pro League games, seven matches in Asia Cup in Rajgir and two Test matches in South Africa in Dec.“Sometimes with older players they get better with age in a way. Look at Tom Boon, Vincent Vanasch. They dip because they can’t stay at that level all the time. But they know how to play, and they have to manage themselves, manage their lives, manage their bodies, manage their fitness. That’s the key. It’s fitness,” Fulton further added.Manpreet has himself admitted to leaving no stone unturned to stay in shape — arguably even better than some of the youngsters at the moment.“At one point of time, I felt that I had gotten slow, so I started to focus on my diet, analysed where I needed to work on in the gym and lost 6-7 kgs over 4-5 months,” said the two-time Olympic bronze medalist.“I worked mostly on my lower body because we have to run a lot. Also, I focused on staying injury free. If I have strength in my body and power in my muscles, injuries are less likely to happen.”This certainly has helped him to be one of the hardest workers in the team playing in whatever position he needs to be in. He has also been donning the first rusher’s mantle while defending the penalty corners with aplomb.Besides what he has been doing on the field and off it, he has also had great support from his family, who have come down to Bhubaneswar and hopefully they will be able to see him lift the trophy on Monday.If that does happen, it will then be quite foolhardy to not select him for the national team especially when he has the support of the coach who has taken the side to multiple titles including the bronze at Paris Olympics.