
Star Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia on Sunday revealed that his knee injury constrained him to miss out on preparing for almost three weeks which seriously hampered his Olympic preparations and he took the mat for the bronze medal match with no knee protection, deciding to carry on after the advice of his support staff.
“We will take care of injury later, remove the knee brace for now,” said Punia before his tie against Kazakhstan’s Daulet Niyazbekov in the bronze medal match. Punia carried his knee injury heading into the Tokyo Olympics for about a month in advance. Punia ended by twisting his right knee at a tournament in Russia.
Haryana | Due to knee injury he (Bajrang Punia) was not able to perform attacking wrestling (y'day), which he is known for. We talked over phone early morning& I told him to give his best today (match for Bronze medal):Wrestler Bajrang Punia's father, Balwan Singh#TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/E2IQwEQgZr
— ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2021
The doctors had advice Punia to return to India after he sustained the knee injury in Russia to begin treatment and rest.
“I could not do mat training for nearly 25 days. I was not able to run as well after the injury. Before a tournament like the Olympics even missing one day’s training is not good,” said Punia during a media interaction.
Punia had decided to not travel back to India with the fear of adding more trouble by travelling during the COVID -19 pandemic as his participation at the Olympics hung in the balance. With help from the Indian Embassy in Moscow, Punia had received all the required equipment for him to start rehab in a small Russian village.
Although Punia missed out on the gold that he had in his sights, he has still managed to win bronze for India after all the struggle he went through and his race to be back and fit to compete just in time for the Olympics.