Exclusive: PV Sindhu recalls sustaining knee injury during 2023 French Open tournament on First Sports show

Not long ago, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu was on top of the world in women’s badminton. In 2017, Sindhu had achieved her career-best BWF ranking of World No 2, and a couple of years later in 2019, Sindhu would go onto beat Nozomi Okuhara to clinch a historic BWF World Championships title. And while Sindhu did reach the quarter-finals of the Asian Games in Hangzhou recently, where she lost to He Bingjiao, the Hyderabad shuttler suffered an injury setback during the French Open in October. Sindhu was playing against Thailand’s Supanida Katethong in the pre-quarterfinals of the French Open, and had taken the first game 21-18. However, early in the second game, Sindhu suffered an injury to her knee, and after consultation with her coach and physio, Sindhu was forced to withdraw from the contest. Sindhu recalled the moment she sustained the injury and how she felt she was unable to play further. “I was playing in France against Supanida from Thailand. It was the pre-quarterfinals. In the first game, everything was going on well. In the end, I think at 18-20, I hard a sound in my knee, maybe it was just normal, sand I continued to play the rally. I won the first game. Of course, when I obviously changed courts, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable, I didn’t know what was happening,” Sindhu said during the Mic-Up segment of the First Sports show hosted by Rupha Ramani.

“But when I went back into the court and I played for one point, I was very uncomfortable, and I spoke to my coach. My physio was there. I spoke to my physio and she was like nobody knew what was happening, because there was nothing seen as such outside, I was on the ground or nothing like that. So, I just told them that I was feeling very uncomfortable and I wasn’t able to play,” Sindhu added. The score in the second game was 1-1 when Sindhu decided to withdraw. The 28-year-old said that despite having applied magic spray on her injured knee, she was unable to move and had to make the tough decision to pull out. “And they just said you can just spray on your leg and see. So, I called up the doctor, and he sprayed on my knee. I played my second point as well, I didn’t play my 100 per cent but somehow managed to get that point. Then I decided that I was not able to move and then I was like I can’t play, because if you’re not 100 per cent, there’s no point in playing,” she continued. While Sindhu could be out of action till February 2024, after consideration with Prakash Padukone and the rest of her support staff, the best decision was to freeze her ranking. “It’s going to take a couple of weeks of rest because I showed it to the doctor. We had an MRI test as soon as the matches were done. I had to come back to Hyderabad, undergo scans and consult almost four-five doctors. They (Doctors) said that you can’t move and you need rest, because without taking rest if you continue playing then the injury would become very major. “ Sindhu said that it was difficult for her to miss tournaments. “I need rest for sure. I can’t get on court or I can’t do any exercises. It’s difficult to miss tournaments. I have to take a couple of weeks rest then get onto rehab and then the court. Prakash sir, my physio and everybody, they felt that my best option was to freeze my ranking because there’s a lot of tournaments including the Paris Olympics in 2024 coming up.” “Even though when you get fit, without being 100 percent, there’s no point in going. If you’re 50 per cent and you go and play, then the injury becomes more,” added the current World No 12.