Mandeep Singh scored a hattrick against Japan.(Source: File)
Mandeep Singh became the sixth national hockey player to test positive for coronavirus ahead of the national camp in Bengaluru, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) said in a statement on Monday.
Being treated along with five other players including captain Manpreet Singh, the 25-year old team forward from Jalandhar is asymptomatic.
Other than Mandeep and Manpreet, defender Surender Kumar, Jaskaran Singh, drag-flicker Varun Kumar and goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak tested positive last week after returning to the SAI Centre where the national camp is due to start on August 20.
“Mandeep Singh, a member of the Indian Men’s Hockey team, who was given the Covid test (RT PCR) along with 20 other players at the National Camp at SAI’s National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, has tested COVID positive, but is asymptomatic,” the SAI said in a statement.
“He is being administered treatment by doctors, along with the other five players who have tested positive.”
According to the SAI doctors, all the players were showing only “mild symptoms” and are doing well. They are housed in the National Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru. The players were earlier stranded at the centre for over two months (till June) when a national lockdown was imposed to contain the virus.
After coming back from the break, the players were in mandatory quarantine before resumption of training at the centre.
India’s COVID-19 case tally has crossed 22 lakh with the overall death toll nearing the 45,000-mark.