{"id":290535,"date":"2025-04-25T22:30:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/25\/paris-olympics-hockey-sukhjeet-singhs-miracle-from-partial-paralysis-6-years-ago-to-being-at-the-heart-of-indias-attacks\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T22:30:36","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T22:30:36","slug":"paris-olympics-hockey-sukhjeet-singhs-miracle-from-partial-paralysis-6-years-ago-to-being-at-the-heart-of-indias-attacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/25\/paris-olympics-hockey-sukhjeet-singhs-miracle-from-partial-paralysis-6-years-ago-to-being-at-the-heart-of-indias-attacks\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics, hockey: Sukhjeet Singh\u2019s miracle \u2013 from partial paralysis 6 years ago to being at the heart of India\u2019s attacks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Paris<\/div>


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Sukhjeet Singh believes in miracles. His career, the forward insists, is one.<\/p>\n

Today, he wheels away even before the ball reaches him, slipping past defenders, receiving, dodging, scoring and setting up his teammates. Six summers ago, he couldn\u2019t even get out of his bed without someone\u2019s help.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBilkul he toot chuka tha mein <\/em>(I was completely broken),\u201d Sukhjeet says.<\/p>\n

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The 27-year-old is in a cozy hotel room in London, where India begin a Pro League mini-tournament against Germany and Britain on Saturday. His roommate is former India captain Manpreet Singh, one of the most impactful players of this generation. \u201cI am sharing a room with someone I used to see on TV,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Sukhjeet, who scored and assisted during the Belgium leg of the Pro League, isn\u2019t being fan-boyish, although he can\u2019t stop gushing about Manpreet\u2019s \u2018vision and scoops\u2019. But in truth, he is only humble about his journey.<\/p>\n

None of this \u2013 playing for India, sharing a room with a former captain, scoring goals \u2013 seemed possible mid-2018, when he was escorted out of the Amritsar airport in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n

Sukhjeet\u2019s father, Ajit \u2013 teary-eyed and speechless \u2013 lifted his son from the wheelchair and made him sit inside their car. As they drove home, the only sound that could be heard was that of the father and son sniffling, mourning a hockey career they thought had died.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSabse bura samay<\/em>,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the worst day, the worst phase of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Sukhjeet India\u2019s Sukhjeet Singh jostling to control the ball during a match. (Hockey India)<\/span><\/p>\n

Just a few months earlier, when Ajit had dropped him at the airport, the scenes couldn\u2019t have been more contrasting. The then-21-year-old got his maiden national team camp call-up. And Ajit, a former Punjab Police player, sent off his son to the Sports Authority of India, Bangalore<\/a>, with a lot of fanfare. A decade-and-a-half of single-minded, unwavering dedication was finally being rewarded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were tears that day too,\u201d Sukhjeet says. \u201cBut those were happy tears. I was finally on the cusp of achieving something that I and my father dreamt of together \u2013 to play for India. My father couldn\u2019t make it to the national team. So it was like I was living his dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dream turned into a nightmare only \u2018three or four days later\u2019. In a new city, new environment and around new people, the young boy from Jalandhar<\/a> fell sick. Initially, it was only fever. \u201cStill, I pushed through. I didn\u2019t want to let the opportunity go to waste and I wanted to prove to everyone that I belonged there. So, I trained and trained.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Slowly, he developed a back pain. Sukhjeet tried to brave that out too but it became impossible to continue. And so, he sought the physio\u2019s intervention. \u201cThe physio was from Australia and I wasn\u2019t fluent in English. So, I turned to a couple of my seniors \u2013 Ramandeep Singh and Akashdeep Singh. With their help, I explained to the physio my problem and he began the treatment,\u201d Sukhjeet says.<\/p>\n

It, however, only was the beginning of his ordeal. \u201cDuring the treatment, the physio pinched a nerve and the problem became very serious. My right side got paralysed. Bilkul dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The smile that was on Sukhjeet\u2019s \u2013 \u2018Sukhi\u2019 to his teammates \u2013 face while talking about travelling the world with India and sharing a room with Manpreet is long gone. His voice quivers and speaks in staccato, searching for the right words.<\/p>\n

They performed half a dozen scans but \u2018there wasn\u2019t a confirmed diagnosis\u2019. The doctors put him on painkillers but once its effect would subside, Sukhjeet would writhe in pain.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou feel so helpless. I couldn\u2019t get up from the bed by myself. Couldn\u2019t go to the washroom, couldn\u2019t eat. I was alone at the hospital, wondering how things went so wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, after months of treatment when he was discharged from the hospital, Sukhjeet was allowed to take a flight and go home. But not before he suffered another body blow \u2013 being released from the national camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, what would I do with my life now?\u201d<\/p>\n

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For as long as he can remember, Sukhjeet had been living two dreams simultaneously: his and his father\u2019s.<\/p>\n

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Ajit was good at hockey to the extent that he landed a sports quota job with the Punjab Police but not good enough to make it to the national team. \u201cSo, he put all his efforts into making me an international player,\u201d Sukhjeet says.<\/p>\n

Sukhjeet remembers the first hockey stick he got. He was six. Aijt returned from police duty, got his full-size wooden stick and hacked it into half so that Sukhjeet could use it.<\/p>\n

\"Sukhjeet India\u2019s Sukhkeet Singh in action. (Hockey India)<\/span><\/p>\n

Ajit taught his son all the basics of the sport. But he was humble to realise his limitations as a coach and enrolled him into an academy in Chandigarh<\/a>. \u201cEven there, he would make long journeys twice or thrice a week after his duty to give me milkshakes and bananas,\u201d Sukhjeet says. \u201cHe struggled a lot for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he got partially paralysed, Sukhjeet might have lost hope of playing again. But for Ajit, giving up wasn\u2019t an option. \u201cFather Saab motivated me. He used to return home from work and give me a massage, take me to doctors and ensure I ate well. For one or two months, he gave up his life so I could get mine on track.\u201d<\/p>\n

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After nearly six months of treatment, Sukhjeet recovered enough to pick up the hockey stick again. The strong basics Ajit drilled into him in the early years came in handy as Sukhjeet realised he hadn\u2019t lost his muscle memory. By the end of 2019, he was back on the domestic circuit and when the pandemic hit, the forward used the time to build more muscle and recover all the strength he\u2019d lost.<\/p>\n

And in 2021, after the Graham Reid-led coaching staff decided to infuse fresh blood into the Indian team that had won the Tokyo Olympics bronze medal, Sukhjeet was back on the radar. In the three years since, he\u2019s made all the right noises to be in the reckoning for a place in the Paris-bound squad.<\/p>\n

Sukhjeet isn\u2019t only about goals. In Craig Fulton\u2019s visualisation of perfect hockey, forwards must defend and defenders have to venture forward. Sukhjeet, when on the field, leads the first line of defence with his re-tackling, trying to win the ball back immediately after it\u2019s lost to stop the counterattacks, uses his speed to get into dangerous positions and is often at the right place at the right time.<\/p>\n

Against the reigning Olympic champions Belgium the other day in Antwerp, his positioning and finishing qualities came to the fore.<\/p>\n

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Hardik Singh won the possession in the midfield and began running diagonally towards the right, dragging the defenders with him. Sukhjeet was near the top of the left side of \u2018D\u2019, the only Indian forward in the attacking circle and marked closely by a defender.<\/p>\n

As Hardik released the ball to a forward-marching Harmanpreet behind him, Sukhjeet circled the defender, evaded him and positioned himself at the penalty spot anticipating Harmanpreet\u2019s cross. The captain obliged with a pin-point delivery that Sukhjeet deflected past the goalkeeper.<\/p>\n

It was a silky smooth build-up and finish, the kind of which isn\u2019t seen too often from India\u2019s forwards. Earlier in the game, Sukhjeet found space in a crowded \u2018D\u2019 to set-up a scoring chance for Araijeet Singh Hundal and in the next match, he raked in more assists against 2016 Olympic champions Argentina.<\/p>\n

He has been at the heart of the forward line\u2019s resurgence, which comes just in time for the Paris Olympics. \u201cWe are focussed on the match now but everything we are doing is keeping in mind the Olympics. So yes, I am excited,\u201d Sukhjeet says. \u201cBut I am also grateful for the second chance I\u2019ve got. It\u2019s a miracle that I am playing.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n