If India's veteran goalkeeper PR Sreejesh, 30, needed any more motivation to excel under the bar for the nation at this World Cup, he just got it. Not that he would've wanted it this way, though.

Sreejesh's father Raveendran, who suffered a heart attack last year, was admitted to a Kochi hospital on Saturday, hours before Sreejesh took to the Kalinga turf here to face World No. 3 Belgium in a league match. His family chose to inform him only later, and he then rushed back home to Ernakulam, met his father in hospital and returned last evening to Bhubaneswar.