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Three players of the Indian men’s hockey team, including experienced midfielder Manpreet Singh, have been dropped from the list of probable players before the upcoming season of the Pro League (FIH Pro League). This decision may be surprising, but according to sources, this decision was taken due to ‘disciplinary’ reasons during the South Africa tour in December last year.

There was speculation that Manpreet was dropped to prevent him from equaling Hockey India President Dilip Tirkey’s record of most international matches by an Indian player (412). Manpreet is one match away from this record. News agency PTI quoted sources close to the team as saying that the decision to drop Manpreet Singh, Dilpreet Singh and goalkeeper Krishan Bahadur Pathak was taken during the South Africa tour in December last year.

Played two tests and one practice match

The Indian team played two Tests and one practice match in South Africa from 7 to 10 December 2025. Sources said, ‘A serious case of indiscipline came to light during the South Africa tour when a player was missing from the team meeting and it was later revealed that he was allegedly fed chewing gum containing a banned substance by Manpreet, Dilpreet and Pathak due to which he became unconscious and had to be nursed throughout the night. Next morning he could not even go to the team meeting.

Is Hockey India not aware?

He further said, ‘The players later apologized for feeding banned substances to their teammate but in the team meeting itself, the decision to keep them out of the upcoming camp was given.’ It has also been revealed that no written report of the incident has been given to Hockey India by coach Craig Fulton.

Senior players were given rest

Hockey India on Thursday released the list of probable players for the upcoming season of Pro League to be held in Rourkela next month, in which the coach said that some senior players have been rested for workload management. This camp will be organized from February 1 to 7 before the FIH Pro League matches to be held in Rourkela from February 10 to 15.

Under the co-captaincy of Manpreet, Ranchi Royals team reached the finals of the Hockey India League and their performance in the tournament was also commendable, due to which questions are bound to be raised about his ouster. Whereas, Krishan and Dilpreet were part of the Kalinga Lancers team that won HIL. 33-year-old former Indian captain Manpreet, a member of two Olympic bronze medal-winning teams, has not made it to the list of probables for the camp for the first time in 15 years.