BWF World Championships: In another major blow, three-time champion Carolina Marin has now pulled out from the BWF World Championships, Huelva, Spain after failing to recover from a knee injury. Follow BWF World Championships Live on InsideSport.IN
Earlier this year, the Rio Olympics gold medallist had also withdrawn from the All England Championships after suffering the injury during the Swiss Open. Initially, the plan for the 28-year-old was to return to action at her home event — the BWF World Championships beginning in Huelva, Spain from December 12.
BWF World Championships: Carolina Marin pulls out from home event, follow live updates
“I was having a really good season start, I had won four tournaments out of five. I was feeling very confident, strong and in a really good physical and psychological condition until just one bad movement broke my knee completely,” Carolina Marin said in a video posted in her twitter handle.
“Mentally it has been really hard to keep myself up, my priorities have been always health and well being. Therefore my team and myself have decided not to play the Huelva BWF World Championships.”
Her coach Fernando Rivas explained the rationale behind the decision while highlighting the delay in her recovery process.
BWF World Championships: Carolina Marin pulls out from home event, follow live updates
“The recovery process for the second injury has been different from the first. The injury was very serious, the meniscus was deeply affected so she could not stand until she went further in her recovery. Because of the mistakes we made during her first injury recovery process, we learnt a lot from that.
“The decision of not playing in the World Championships has been motivated by the delay we had in the recovery process,” he said in a Twitter video.
Fernando Rivas also explained how he he is planning to ensure Carolina Marin returns back on-court injury-free and full of fire.
BWF World Championships: Carolina Marin pulls out from home event, follow live updates
“From now on, we have to focus on recovery of on-court skills, add intensity, recover tactical concepts, and learn from the past. In january, we hope to come back to training, and in February, we hope to be ready for competitions.”
Marin is taking things cautiously as she does not want to put a exact date on her return.
“We have also taken the decision of not having a formal date of comeback to competitions until we are 100 sure my knee is fully recovered. So we will be evaluating slowly knee progress and the sensations. I am daily having it, so we believe I might be officially playing again in the month of February and March.”
Marin had also missed the Tokyo Olympics.
BWF World Championships: Carolina Marin pulls out from home event, follow live updates
She first sustained a knee injury in the Indonesia Masters final in January 2019 and had missed the World Championships that year with India’s PV Sindhu winning her maiden title.
The Spaniard then made her comeback at the Vietnam Open in September, 2019 and went on to win the China Open, Syed Modi tournament followed by a runners-up finish at the French Open that year.
After a second-best finish at Indonesia Masters, Spain Masters and Denmark Open in 2020, Marin returned to claim back-to-back titles at Thailand and a final finish at the season-ending World Tour Finals in Bangkok.
She also won the Swiss Open, beating Sindhu in the finals, besides claiming the European Championships in April.
BWF World Championships: Carolina Marin pulls out from home event, follow live updates
So far, the BWF World Championships has seen a spat of withdrawals with the list increasing by the day. Earlier, two-time gold medallist male shuttler Kento Momota of Japan had also withdrawn after suffering a back injury at the World Tour Finals in Bali, Indonesia.
In women’s singles, 2017 World Championships gold medallist Nozomi Okuhara has also withdrawn, while the Indonesian contingent also decided to skip the event due to concerns over the new COVID-19 variant spreading in European nations.
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