Bajrang Punia is one of those athletes who could win a medal for India, but has suffered a knee injury ahead of the Tokyo Olympics
Bajrang Punia is an Indian freestyle wrestler. He plays in 65 kg weight category. He had won three medals at the World Wrestling Championships.
In the 2013, Asian Wrestling Championship, he had won a bronze medal in the 60kg category of men’s freestyle, as he had lost 3-1 to North Korea’s Hwang Ryong-hak. In order to qualify for the semifinals of the same tournament, he had defeated Morad Hassan of Iran by 3-1.
Bajrang Punia Knee Injury Ahead Of The Tokyo Olympics 2021
During his semifinal match against Russia’s Abdulmazhid Kudiev at Kaspyisk stadium in Ali Aliyev on Friday, Punia had injured his right knee. He was anyways losing the bout to Kudiev as the scorecard read 0-4, but was struggling to get up and had decided to quit the match.
The referee had to intervene the match immediately and his physio was called, who also helped Punia to get off the mat.
Just 28 days are left for the Olympics. And with this injury, Punia’s plans of winning the gold in the Olympics would surely be hampered. Even though his injury has not been examined yet, but he still is expected to undergo a few scans over a period of few days. Sources close to the wrestler revealed that its difficult to find out the extent of the damage being done to his knee not before Monday, as the inflammation takes a minimum of two days to settle down.
What does his coach have to say?
During a recent interview with the Times of India, Shako Bentinidis, who is the Georgian coach of Punia said, “According to my assessment, his injury is not very serious and he would be back on the mat in a week or over 10 days. I am not a doctor, but whatever I have experienced in many years of coaching, he can recover in 7 days.”
Punia was training in Russia and that’s when he decided to give Poland Open a miss and instead participate in the Ali Aliyev event.
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