India’s ace shuttle and former World No.1 Saina Nehwal has confirmed her retirement from badminton, saying that her physique can’t address the bodily calls for of the game anymore. Nehwal has been out of motion for the final two years, together with her final aggressive sport coming all the best way again in 2023, when she took half within the Singapore Open.
Regardless of being away from the court docket, Nehwal did not formally announce her retirement from badminton.
“I had stopped taking part in two years again. I really felt that I entered the game by myself phrases and left by myself phrases, so there was no must announce it,” Saina mentioned on a podcast, as quoted by PTI.
“If you’re not able to taking part in anymore, that is it. It is nice.”
The previous world No.1 defined that intensive knee degeneration left her unable to deal with extended high-intensity coaching.
“Your cartiledge has completely degenerated, you have got arthritis, that is what my dad and mom wanted to know that, my coaches wanted to know that, and I simply instructed them, ‘Now most likely I am unable to do it anymore, it’s troublesome’,” she mentioned.
‘DIDN’T FEEL A NEED FOR FORMAL RETIREMENT’
Nehwal mentioned she did not imagine a proper retirement assertion was essential, as her time away from competitors made her choice evident.
“I did not suppose it was such a giant matter to announce my retirement. I simply felt my time was up as a result of I could not push a lot, that my knee just isn’t in a position to push like earlier than,” she mentioned.
“You practice eight to 9 hours to be the perfect on the planet, now my knee was giving up in a single or two hours. It was swelling and it grew to become very powerful to push after that. So I assumed it is sufficient. I am unable to push it anymore,” she added.
Nehwal’s profession took a significant hit after a severe knee harm on the Rio 2016 Olympics that threatened to chop it brief. Whereas she fought again to say a World Championships bronze in 2017 and Commonwealth Video games gold in 2018, persistent knee issues repeatedly stalled her momentum.
In 2024, she disclosed that she had developed arthritis in each kneeswith cartilage erosion making high-intensity coaching on the elite degree more and more unmanageable.
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