After India reached the men’s team final of the Asian Games badminton competition on Saturday, for the first time in history, they suffered a big setback. The WR-7 player HS Prannoy, was sidelined from the final tie against China due to an untimely back injury. Mithun Manjunath, the WR-53 in men’s singles will replace him for the final, as per reports.
While the nature, and extent of Prannoy’s injury are not known, it makes complete sense for him to not play in the tie against China, since he would be competing in the individual event as well. Moreover, this is an Olympic qualification year, and injury-prone Prannoy would want to preserve himself and focus on tournaments ahead.
Back in 2022, when India had won the Thomas Cup, Prannoy had suffered an ankle injury before the final against Indonesia, and could not take part in the summit clash due to the same reason. Meanwhile, the veteran Indian had played a big role in taking India to the final in the Asian Games. In the semis clash against South Korea’s Jeon Hyeokjin, he gave the team a 1-0 lead initially. He had won 18-21, 21-16, 21-19.
In the final now, Lakshya Sen will face Shi Yu Qi, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty will be up against Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, and Kidambi Srikanth will meet Li Shi Feng.
HS Prannoy Should Take Cue from PV Sindhu Injury
While it is not confirmed if HS Prannoy’s injury is serious, but he should stay away from playing in the individual events too. Last year, during the CWG 2022, PV Sindhu suffered an injury in the semis clash but went on to play the final and win it. That only aggravated her injury and was out of the game for good 6-7 months. She has been out of form since then. Prannoy should take a cue from that and focus on the Olympics.
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