Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s badminton superstar Lee Chong Wei is hoping to play at the 2017 All England despite still recovering from a knee injury sustained during a training session 3 weeks ago.
The World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei who was scheduled to play his first Superseries tournament this season at the All England that will be held from March 7th to March 12th, tore his medial collateral ligament (MCL) on his left knee after a fall on slippery mat in the newly-built Academy Badminton Malaysia.
Speaking to Malaysian media, Lee’s coach Hendrawan said Lee has been working hard to improve his fitness as the badminton maestro continued to recover from his knee injury.
“Chong Wei certainly showed significant improvements comparing to last week. He had already resumed training last week, but his actual training load was limited,” said Hendrawan.
“He participated in larger range of training today, but has not resumed the complete variety of workouts and full court training,” added Hendrawan.
“All England is definitely one of Chong Wei’s main focus this year. However, our team physical therapist and myself are closely monitoring his recovery progress from the knee injury, and we prefer to make the final decision regarding whether or not he will be fit enough to play at All England sometime next week,” revealed Hendrawan.
Meanwhile, Hendrawan refused to comment on rumors about the possible reshuffle of the national coaching staff. The changes of coaching staff is expected to be brought up in Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) Coaching and Training Committee (CTC) meeting on Tuesday. BAM intended to revamp the coaching staff to help resolve the strained relationships between Lee Chong Wei and BAM’s technical director Morten Frost.
