Until January 2023, Hardik Singh would often wonder why athletes cried when they got injured. 'Isn't it a part of sport?' he'd ask himself. Then came January 21, 2023, at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. Hardik cried, on his own, as he failed a fitness test following a hamstring injury and was ruled out of the remainder of that year's FIH World Cup.
It would be a body-blow for India, who would lose to New Zealand in a shootout the next day, as their dream of winning a home World Cup lay in tatters, along with the ignominy of a trip back to Rourkela to play for the minor placings at the World Cup.
"I didn't want to be very negative at the time when I got the injury [on January 15 against England], because the team had matches after that. I had to be strong. But I used to go on my own and cry. I did a little bit of rehab work, and then in the last test, the hamstring still hadn't recovered. There my emotions came out a lot," Hardik tells ESPN, ahead of embarking on another World Cup campaign - his third - this time as the vice-captain of the side.
It is an experience that has shaped Hardik Singh the player, and Hardik Singh the leader.
First, in the immediate aftermath of that injury, Hockey India gave him the option of traveling to the Sports Authority of India facility in Bengaluru to get his rehabilitation started in full swing. He opted to stay with the team. After he had failed his fitness test, he spent time with Raj Kumar Pal, who had been named as his replacement in India's squad one day before a massive knockout tie.
"Raju came into the team instead of me. I was telling him how to play, how to fit the system, what the structure is," Hardik says. It was a big loss for India to not have Hardik for that game, even if Raj Kumar did impress, and for Hardik, a dream of his was put off for another cycle. That's the life of an athlete. You live from World Cup to World Cup, from Olympic Games to Olympic Games. Who knows where the next injury will come from? Who knows whether you'll still be around playing the sport when the next big opportunity comes?
That's a message Hardik gives every team-mate of his before a big tournament - play as if this one is your last game of hockey ever. That injury was an episode which helped Hardik understand the importance of letting go, the importance of the process.
"The biggest thing I learned from that World Cup is that nothing really is in your hands," he says. "Any athlete is stubborn, that we have to do things on our own. I left that feeling after that last World Cup. I just decided that I have to trust the process."
A year later, that decision would go on to help him at the Paris Olympics. India had started the tournament poorly, with below-par performances in a win against New Zealand and a draw against Argentina. Hardik himself didn't really play well. He was trying [too] hard, he says, which affected him. He then decided to let go; just do the things he has normally done throughout his time as an India player. His natural quality, and the hours he'd put in honing his craft would bring his game to the top, he thought. So, it did, and in a week, he was wearing a second Olympic medal around his neck.
Hardik, though, firmly believes that he's got unfinished business in World Cup hockey. India were beaten in the quarterfinals in 2018 by the Netherlands, and then by New Zealand a round before that in 2023. Both those tournaments were in India, now they go to the Netherlands and Belgium, with India likely to play most of their matches in Amstelveen, at least until the semifinals. For Hardik, it's a tournament he's been looking forward to. Outside of India, the Netherlands is the best country to play hockey in, he says.
It's also a tournament he's looking forward to because he, and his teammates, believe they have what it takes to go all the way and bring home a first World Cup trophy since 1975. The team do talk about the possibility of being history-makers, Hardik says, adding that this is one of the best chances India have had to win the World Cup. "We've got Harman, we've got Manpreet, we've got Mandeep, this is my third World Cup. So, if other teams have X, Y or Z, we have players like that too," he says.
This will be Hardik's third World Cup, but he hasn't yet grabbed one by the scruff of the neck. He was a youngster in 2018, and in his words, was nowhere. In 2023, his hamstring injury halted his dream. Now he returns to the World Cup stage in 2026, as one of the best midfielders in the world, and he gives a lot of credit for his development to coach Craig Fulton, who he calls one of the best coaches in the world.
"The amount of information the coaching staff has provided us with since the 2023 World Cup, we've never had that much data before," Hardik says. He gives the example of the Paris Olympics, where India's analysts had presented players with data as detailed as the number of times a player would dribble to his left or his right. That level of analysis is unprecedented, but it also means little if the players don't perform on the big days in big tournaments. "In sport, you can do 99% things right and still lose," Hardik says.
That is the nature of the beast India face.
They're not favourites for this tournament, but they are two-time Olympic medallists. They've got a fairly settled core of players. They've had a competitive set of games against two hugely fancied sides in the Netherlands and Germany not long ago. They're battle-hardened, and they will go to western Europe with happy memories of two summers ago, under this same coach, when they returned home having defended their Olympic bronze medal. And in a fit and firing Hardik Singh, they have the X-factor that could help them end a 51-year drought.