The Hague: Getting injured before a World Cup is like a trend in Indian hockey. Off-late, it's become a full-fledged jinx. Twenty four years back, in an early afternoon World Cup match, at the National Stadium in Lahore, Ram Prakash Singh was on his customary muscular run inside the Soviet Union striking circle when he lost the ball to a defender.


India hockey player Jugraj Singh at a hospital in New Delhi in 2003. He underwent treatment for multiple injuries sustained in a car crash in September 2003. Pic/AFP 

One doesn't remember the name of the Soviet defender but he was tall and built like an oak tree. The defender's shot got deflected of another player's stick and hit RP between the lips and
chin. Blood spurted like a freshly struck oil well. By evening, RP's face was covered in bandages. He did play in the end stages of the World Cup but the injury took away the momentum from India.