The three-time Olympian, who missed out on a rare record of being only the fourth player from the country to have played in four Games, said the Chile debacle was the worst day in his 12-year-old international career.

"It is still difficult to accept that we have not qualified for the Olympics. March 9 was the most disappointing day of my career, worse than the loss to Poland that denied us a semifinal berth in the 2000 Sydney Games," Tirkey told PTI in an interview.

"More than my own record, it hurts to see the country sit out of the Olympics," he said.

Asserting that the team was tuned up well for the qualifiers, the former India captain said one bad day threw the side out of the Olympics.

"We had defeated England on two earlier occasions and were confident of beating them (in the final).

"The team had improved and shaped up well. It was just one bad day in the last 10 months. It was a horrible day, nothing went right for us. The whole team played badly.