• Saina's shocking exit from the Rio Olympics was one of the biggest setbacks for India.• She underwent surgery on her right knee in August.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal is getting ready to return international tourneys after recovering from a knee injury that dashed her Olympics hopes. Nehwal will be back in court in October and is likely to play tournaments by November.
In an exclusive interview to Asianet News, former Indian coach U Vimal Kumar, who trains the world 9th seed said that Nehwal would be back in the international circuits at the earliest. "Saina has recovered fully and will start playing in October and tournaments may be in November," he said.
Nehwal crashed out of the Rio Olympics following a knee injury and had to undergo surgery on her right knee in August this year. "She had a small of bone chip floating in her chip that made it impossible for her to play," her coach said.
Discouraging comments on Social media after Saina lost to World No 61 player Maria Ulitina in the Olympics rounds have hurt her a lot, but now she is concentrating on winning a title at the upcoming World Championship. Social media critics trained guns on Nehwal after PV Sindhu kissed silver medal at Rio, some even predicted that it was high time the former quit the game.
"Indian Badminton is at par with the world standards now, but we need to rectify certain flaws in the doubles events", Vimalkumar said.
India's medal hope dwindled at the Rio Olympics when Saina Nehwal went down to Ukrainian's Marija Ulitina. A serious knee injury sustained ten days before the Rio Olympics had restrained the movements of the player on the court.
Soon after her disappointing loss, Saina underwent a knee surgery at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai in August.
