Tokyo Olympic Medallist Bajrang Punia to Miss Out on Wrestling World Championships 2021; Advised 6 Weeks Rehabilitation for Injury


Tokyo Olympic Medallist Bajrang Punia to Miss Out on Wrestling World Championships 2021; Advised 6 Weeks Rehabilitation for Injury

Bajrang Punia

Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia will miss out on the Wrestling World Championships 2021, after being advised 6 weeks of rehabilitation to treat his injury. The World Championships are set to be held in Oslo from 2nd to 10th October.

Bajrang was originally injured in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics, at the Ali Aliev Tournament in Russia. Bajrang had to forfeit his semi finals bout, after his opponent Abulmazhid Kudiev caught onto his right leg and pulled it abruptly in the first period. The impact left the grappler injured with a ligament tear, but he went on to compete at the Tokyo Olympics and win a bronze medal.

“Since it was my first Olympics and I had a dream to win an Olympic medal, I competed through pain in Tokyo. I had to do it,” he told NDTV. Punia was not consulting any specific physiotherapist during the Olympics. He was doing a few exercises prescribed by his doctor, but now says that even his mat time will be shifted to rehabilitation time.

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Bajrang Punia Suffered from a Ligament Injury; Will Miss out on Wrestling World Championships

Bajrang Punia
Bajrang Punia

Punia has been advised to go through six weeks of rehabilitation to treat the ligament tear that he suffered from in his right knee. Bajrang will not be able to return to his mat training until rehabilitation is complete.

Punia recently underwent an MRI Scan in order to gain more knowledge about the extent of his injuries. He consulted with Dr. Dinshaw, the Centre for Sports Medicine at Mumbai’s Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in the run up to the Tokyo Olympics.

“It’s a ligament tear and I have been asked to follow a rehabilitation programme for six weeks by Dr Dinshaw. I won’t be able to compete at the World Championship,” Bajrang told PTI.

Bajrang said that his season was now over, since the World Championships was the last and major tournament on his list for the rest of the year, since there are no more ranking competitions left.

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