Abhishek Is Touch and Go for India’s Semi-Final, and Fulton Can’t Hide the Worry

India have one fitness headache going into Wednesday, and it’s a big one. Abhishek, the forward who has scored three goals in three games at this Asian Champions Trophy, sat out Monday’s 8-0 demolition of Korea with an ankle injury, and head coach Craig Fulton isn’t pretending he’s sure about Wednesday.

Fulton called it “touch and go”. That’s coach-speak for: we genuinely don’t know yet. Abhishek was hurt around Sunday’s 4-2 win over Malaysia, missed the Korea game entirely, and was due to be reassessed on Tuesday, with Fulton saying they’d wait on what the medical staff say before deciding whether he can stay in the tournament.

It’s easy to say India don’t need him. They just put eight past the same opponents without him, and Hardik Singh was rested for that one too. But that’s the wrong way to look at it. Knockout hockey isn’t league hockey. Korea have nothing to lose on Wednesday, they’ll sit deeper, they’ll foul more, they’ll try to drag it into a scrap, and that’s exactly when you want a forward who can make something out of nothing. Abhishek has been that player all week.

The encouraging bit, for India fans, is that captain Harmanpreet Singh had earlier expected a quick return, and Abhishek travelled with the squad to Mohali. He’s still in the picture. The worrying bit is Fulton’s own timeline: “very little time” before a Wednesday semi-final, in Fulton’s words, with the call coming Tuesday night.

For our money, India still win this semi-final with or without him. They’re unbeaten, they’ve scored 34 goals in five games, and Korea just shipped eight. But a final on Thursday, against Japan or Malaysia, is a different test, and India will want their full forward line for that one. Tuesday’s reassessment is the biggest non-match news of the tournament so far.