Ace shuttler Anup Sridhar says his ankle injury would have healed faster had he given the Beijing Olympics a miss, but insisted that he doesn’t regret risking his career for playing in the world’s biggest sporting extravaganza.
“I would’ve healed quicker if I’d given the Olympics a miss, specially since I then wouldn’t have taken a cortisone shot which delays complete recovery,” Anup, who beat Marco Vasconcelos of Portugal in the first round before going down to Shoji Sato of Japan in the second round in Beijing Games, told PTI.
“But I had a shot at the biggest competition in the world and if I had to do things over I would still go ahead with the cortisone shot and participate in the Olympics games,” he added.
Though his dream of representing India at the Olympics materialised, what followed was a prolonged period of frustration as he was forced to stay away from the court for more than three months, owing to his injury.
“It has been a very tough time in my life. My whole life revolves around badminton and if I’m not even sure of getting back to full fitness, that’s a very hard thing to deal with.
“I haven’t been out of the court for even two weeks at a stretch in the last three years or so and this has been the hardest thing for me,” Anup said.
“Initially after getting back from Beijing, I tried to get fit a bit too quickly, and paid the price for it. I even tried taking rest for a few weeks but that didn’t help either. I’ve been forced to figure things out for myself like who’s the right doctor to consult, what kind of treatment routine to follow etc. So that has made it quite hard,” he said.
