Kuala Lumpur: If it takes 100,000 hours of “extensive training” to truly master the skill of badminton, it would only need 1 second to suffer a career-ending injury.
Malaysia’s former World junior champion Goh Jin Wei felt a sharp pain on her left ankle when playing against Indonesia’s Gregoria Mariska in the Asian Junior Badminton Championships semi-finals in Jakarta on Monday, and was forced to retire while trailing 11-21, 16-17.
World No. 2 badminton superstar Lee Chong Wei has voiced his concern and said the recurrence of Goh Jin Wei’s ankle injury was caused by playing in too many tournaments after she just recovered from the same injury in April and was entirely preventable.
However, Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) technical director Morten Frost said he didn’t think Goh was pushed beyond her physical limits.
According to BadmintonPlanet.com’s research, there are two main types of sports injuries: acute and overuse. Acute injuries usually are the result of a single incident, such as dislocating your shoulder or twisting an ankle or knee on the basketball court. Overuse injuries are caused by repetitive trauma to the tendons, bones, or joints. These injuries can be subtle and happen over time. Examples include shoulder pain in young throwing athletes, shin splints, and stress fractures.
Meanwhile, the 2015 World Junior champion is expected to know the seriousness of her injury after undergoing a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) at the National Sports Institute (ISN) on Friday.
The unfortunate injury will likely to force her out of the New Zealand Open in Auckland that will be held from August 1 to August 5.
Goh will still be able to play at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and 2017 World Junior Championships if the MRI on her ankle revealed her season would continue and she could get the clearance to play.
