Saina Nehwal Will Battle Tough Path to Fitness And Form, Says Coach Vimal Kumar
Saina Nehwal was one of India's biggest medal hopes in Rio Olympics 2016. The badminton star crashed out in the group stage after a knee injury aggravated.
Highlights
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Saina Nehwal was injured before Rio Olympics
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Saina was on pain-killers for a troublesome knee
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Saina unlikely to return to action before November
As PV Sindhu basks in the glory of her silver medal win in Rio Olympics 2016, India's badminton queen Saina Nehwal is recovering in a Hyderabad hospital after a right knee injury that laid her low at the Summer Games.
Saina's coach Vimal Kumar feels the former world No. 1 faces a tough challenge to regain match fitness and is unlikely to be back in action in November.
Saina's defeat against unseeded Ukrainian Maria Ulitina in Rio may have come as a shock for several Indians who had pinned their hopes for a medal on the 26-year-old, but Vimal Kumar may not have been surprised.
Saina was carrying a dodgy knee injury into Rio and it aggravated at the wrong time to hurt her and of course, India.
"I thought she looked quite good before Rio. In the first week of August she consulted a doctor and he said it was a 'fat pad inflammation.' We thought a few days of rest should do.
"But after reaching Rio on August 7 she was in great discomfort. She thought she could take a painkiller. She was mentally prepared but the pain was really bad," Vimal Kumar told Mid-Day.com.
Now, Saina faces a massive threat to her international career and Vimal Kumar is a worried man.
"For the next three months we are not looking at titles. She is looking at completing her rehab programme properly, get her strength back and make a comeback.
"The rehab programme is most crucial right now and how seriously she takes it will be very important in her comeback bid. Strength will be the key here. To get her strokes back won't take less than a week," Vimal Kumar said.
Saina has been injury prone but she has always done the hard work to stage a smashing comeback. In 2015-2016 she missed more than three months due to injuries only to return in June and clinch the Australian Open in June.
At a time when Sindhu is hogging all the attention, Saina's path ahead with test her mental stamina as well. Having mulled quitting the game in 2014, it remains to be seen how the 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist emerges from this career low.