New Delhi: Saina Nehwal has announced her intention to retire as her creaking body isn’t able to sustain the rigours of competitive badminton.
Her last
appearance in a competitive match was at the Singapore Open in 2023 and since then she has been out of action for two years with a chronic knee injury.
“I had stopped playing two years back. I actually felt that I entered the sport on my own terms and left on my own terms, so there was no need to announce it. If you are not capable of playing anymore, that’s it. It’s fine,” the 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist said on a podcast.
A former World No.1, Saina disclosed that a severe degeneration of her knee made sustained high-intensity training impossible and forced her to quit.
The 35-year-old said she didn’t feel the need to formally announce her departure as her absence from action would have been a clear signal.
“Your cartiledge has totally degenerated, you have arthritis, that’s what my parents needed to know that, my coaches needed to know that, and I just told them, ‘Now probably I can’t do it anymore, it is difficult’. Slowly people will also realise that Saina is not playing,” she said.
As her dodgy knee wasn’t able to endure the physical demand of even limited intensity training session, she knew her career had to come to an end.
“I didn’t think it was such a big matter to announce my retirement. I just felt my time was up because I couldn’t push much, that my knee is not able to push like before,” she said.
“You train eight to nine hours to be the best in the world, now my knee was giving up in one or two hours. It was swelling and it became very tough to push after that. So I thought it’s enough. I can’t push it anymore.”
(More to follow…)
