It has been a very positive couple of months for Indian badminton and now even PV Sindhu has withdrawn from the BWF World Tour FInals schedule in China as she issued a letter to the Badminton Association of India sharing that she still needs time to recuperate from her left ankle stress fracture. The star Indian shuttler sustained that injury in her triumph for Gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Sindhu’s father PV Ramana shared that her daughter’s doctor has told her to wait for sometime before she can return to action. “Her doctor has advised her to take some more time so that she recovers completely ahead of the new season. She has discussed about the pros and cons but with so many restrictions in Guangzhou and also keeping the new season in mind, she has taken this decision,” Sindhu’s father PV Ramana told PTI.

Ramana also shared that Sindhu will be back to full fitness in January and has already started training. “She has already started her training a couple of weeks back and by January she will be fully fit. So in view of all these reasons, she sent a mail to BAI informing her about her decision,” Ramana shared.

He also highlighted how next year will be important for Sindhu as she will feature at the Asian Games and also the qualifications of the 2024 Paris Olympics therefore she is taking extra care on her recovery. “She will need to be at her best for next year, which will have Asian Games and also the 2024 Paris Olympics qualification. Playing about 22 tournaments will be tough, so she is taking extra care.”

With PV Sindhu’s withdrawal, HS Prannoy remains the only Indian shuttler to feature at the year end event while Kidambi Srikanth is still in with a fighting chance. Indian Doubles pairing of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty declared that they aren’t featuring in any other events this year after they lost in the quarterfinals of the Hylo Open. Whereas Lakshya Sen withdrew from the Australian Open due to a throat infection.