“She took the flight lasting 15 hours from Dubai. And

"She took the flight lasting 15 hours from Dubai. And ZCZC PRI ESPL NAT SPO .MUMBAI SPB3 SPORT-BAD-VIMAL 3 LAST "She took the flight lasting 15 hours from Dubai. And over there (Rio) we

“She took the flight lasting 15 hours from Dubai. And

ZCZC
PRI ESPL NAT SPO
.MUMBAI SPB3
SPORT-BAD-VIMAL 3 LAST
“She took the flight lasting 15 hours from Dubai. And
over there (Rio) we went to the gymnasium, did treadmill run.
She said that stiffness was still there the next day morning after the first practice session. She said it was really paining and asked can I take a painkilling injection and play.
“She was looking at the quarter-finals. Then physio and Games village doctor all advised against it. Next day she played and felt pain. In that first match she literally struggled. After that she came out and said she was defying everyone. With pain-killer the pain can be masked and she could play.
“She took the injection before the second match, played it with pain as she could not put her foot down. It was really bad but she played with a lot of pain (and lost). We left that night itself from Rio,” Vimal revealed.
“After coming over here it was found through scan that the bone, protruding into fat pad, had chipped off. It was floating inside. All the pain killing injections were a waste.
Then she was operated. The main thing was all her ligaments were intact and that made her, to some extent, recover fast.” Vimal said talks of Saina appearing in the Games despite carrying an injury did hurt her feelings.
“Talks that she had gone there with injury did hurt her.
She is someone who is constantly playing for the last seven years. When she plays she wants to win. She could not digest the fact that it happened there, either during the long flight or during one of our training sessions.
“There was no pressure of expectations. All those things never affected her. When the cricketers play there are so many opinions about how they should have played. Compared to that pressure in badminton is nothing. You cannot blame anyone, it just happened to you, and you just accept it. She is just 26, quite young and she is an athlete who wants to win. She is not a politician. Sports people are sensitive,” Vimal said. PTI SSR RSY CM
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