New Delhi: Six more national team players have pulled out of the World Series Hockey, dealing a blow to the multi-city event less than three weeks before its scheduled start.

Birender Lakra, Manjeet Kullu, Rupinder Pal Singh, Danish Mujtaba, K Chinglensana Singh and Manpreet Singh have expressed their desire to withdraw from the lucrative league in a letter to Hockey India (HI) secretary Narinder Batra.

The development came a day after six key members of the Indian team, including captain Bharat Chetri and senior players like Tushar Khandker and Sandeep Singh who are currently playing Champions Challenge in South Africa, sent a similar letter.

In the fresh letter, similar to the one sent by the first batch of players, the players have said they would not be playing in the WSH and would be attending the training camp in the Capital for the Olympic qualifiers.