Kuala Lumpur: With 55 days left until the Tokyo Olympics, the reigning Olympics women’s singles champion Carolina Marin of Spain suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury on her left knee during training on Friday.
Marin had ruptured her right knee ligament during the summit clash of Indonesia Masters against India’s Saina Nehwal in January of 2019. She then had to undergo surgery and it took her about eight months to recover.
She staged a strong comeback after successfully recovered from the potentially career-threatening injury by winning the 2019 China Open Super 1000, beating Tai Tzu Ying 14-21, 21-17, 21-18 after 228 days or 34 weeks since she injured her right ACL.
Marin’s doctors conducted several tests on Friday, and they confirmed that the 27-year-old had picked up an anterior cruciate ligament injury on her left knee.
The world No. 4 player was upbeat after the diagnosis and said posted on her social media that she was “in the best hands”.
“Today I suffered some discomfort during training that caused me to stop training.”
“After the first tests (we had) done, the doctors have realized that it is the anterior cruciate ligament of the left knee that is affected.”
“Soon I will be able to give you more information. I am in the best hands, always. Whatever happens, #PuedoPorquePiensoQuePuedo (#ICanBecauseIThinkICan).”
Estoy en las mejores manos 🐺#PuedoPorquePiensoQuePuedo pic.twitter.com/jubz5LTGeX
— Carolina Marín (@CarolinaMarin) May 28, 2021
In an interview Marin did in 2016, she made a remark that “China’s injury was part of their strategy”, indicating faking injury and facking bad form was common within Chinese athletes. In the Rio Olympics semi-final, Carolina Marin defeated Li Xuerui of China 21-14, 21-16 before eventually beating PV Sindhu of India in the final.
Even though it was extremely painful for Li in the semi-final match, but Li carried on all the way to the end to finish the match. That knee injury eventually ended Li Xuerui’s badminton as she was not as good as before the injury despite her numerous attempts of returning to action almost 600 days after the injury.
