Indian men’s hockey team had suffered a fresh blow with its versatile Australian analytical coach Chris Ciriello resigning due to a medical condition. The 34-year-old former World Cup-winner reportedly contracted a virus before leaving for home on a break in June that aggravated his existing skin condition. Ciriello is the third support staff member to quit in a month, after his compatriots, high-performance director David John and physio David MacDonald. It extends a tradition of HI prematurely parting ways with support staff. The last four years or so have seen four chief coaches. Dutchman Roelant Oltmans left after India’s second-round exit at the 2016 Rio Olympics, replaced by compatriot Sjoerd Marijne in September 2017. In a bizarre move after both teams failed to win a medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in April 2018, the roles of Marijne and women’s coach Harendra Singh were swapped.