Sindhu pulls out of World Championships owing to stress fracture

NEW DELHI: India’s star shuttler P V Sindhu on Saturday pulled out of the upcoming BWF World Championships owing to a stress fracture on her left foot.

In a statement which she shared on Twitter, the double Olympic medallist confirmed that she will be missing the 2022 World Championships.

Sindhu has won the World Championships gold in 2019, along with two silver medals and two bronze.

“While I am on the high of winning a gold medal at the CWG for India, unfortunately, I have to pull out of the world championships. I felt pain and there was an injury scare at the quarter-finals of the CWG, but with the help of my coach, physio and trainer, I decided to push as far as I could,” Sindhu said in the statement.

“The pain was unbearable during and post the finals. Hence, I rushed for an MRI as soon as I got back to Hyderabad. The doctors confirmed a stress fracture on my left foot and recommended rest for a few weeks. I should be back to training in a few weeks. Thank you all for your support and love,” she added.

The World Championships will be held in Tokyo from August 21 till August 28.

Sindhu has won the gold medal in the women’s singles event at the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games and revealed that she had been playing through pain at the multi-sport extravaganza.

Sindhu added a CWG singles gold to her wide array of medals with a convincing straight-game win over Canada’s Michelle Li.

The world number seven from India outplayed her 13th ranked opponent 21-15 21-13 in front of a packed crowd at the NEC arena in Birmingham.

This was Sindhu’s second gold medal at the Commonwealth Games, having earlier won the yellow metal in 2018 in the mixed team event. She also has one silver and one bronze in women’s singles from 2018 and 2014 editions respectively.

The 27-year-old Sindhu also has two Olympic medals. She won silver in women’s singles in 2016 and followed that up with a bronze medal in Tokyo last year.