Madrid: Former World No. 1 and Rio Olympic women’s singles gold medalist Carolina Marin of Spain said on Monday she hoped to return to competitive badminton — perhaps as soon as August at the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland.
The Spaniard, who originally expected to be out of action for at least six to nine months after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligaments (ACL) in the Indonesia Masters final against Saina Nehwal in January 2019.
However, she held a press conference on Monday to announce that her rehabilitation was going well and she will be able to play at the top level again.
“I didn’t expect that I could recover so quickly, and I’ll be focusing on the Tokyo Olympics,” said Marin who was looking to start playing possibly at the World Championships in August.
The three-time World champion already started her rehabilitation only 7th day after underwent the surgery for her injured ACL. She has also spent 8 hours every day in the past five months to work on her recovery.
“I was able to move easily on the treadmill. I hope when I return to the game, I’ll be stronger and more confident,” added Marin.
Meanwhile, Marin also said that she doesn’t want to rush for her comeback.
“The road to recovery was very difficult, and I understood clearly unless I am 100% recovered, otherwise, I wouldn’t have come out to play. I want to make sure my body is 100% healthy, or even better than before,” added Marin.
Despite her injury, Marin still ranked World No. 8 in the latest BWF world rankings this week (her protection ranking was World No. 5). However, since the Olympic qualifying already started at the end of April, it is understandable that she is eager to comeback to start collecting the qualifying points for the Tokyo Games.
