Injured Vijender pulls out of National Games

Nose niggle not career-threatening, but can’t risk competing while carrying it, says Olympic-medallist boxer

January 30, 2015 11:36 am | Updated 12:35 pm IST - Thiruvananthapuram

Star Indian boxer Vijender Singh has pulled out of the 35th National Games starting tomorrow after failing to recover from a nagging nose injury.

“I have not been able to recover from the nose injury which had forced me out of the Asian Games November last. It flared up again while I was training some days back,” Vijender told PTI.

The former Olympic bronze-medallist middleweight boxer, however, stated that the injury was not career-threatening.

“It is not a major injury but I have to be careful. I cannot risk competing while carrying this problem, that’s why I have decided to pull out of the Games. I will have to wait some more to make a comeback,” he said.

The 29-year-old was last seen in action at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow last year where he won a silver medal.

Vijender’s pullout adds to the list of star athletes who have decided to give the Games a miss owing to a variety of reasons.

Also missing in action will be badminton star Saina Nehwal and top wrestlers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt, among others.

Vijender said he was keen to participate had it not been for the injury: “I wanted to participate in the Games and was preparing for the event but this injury has forced me to make a last-minute pullout.

The boxing competition of the Games will be staged in Thrissur.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.