Injured Popat not to defend national title

 
A recurring wrist injury has derailed nine-time national champion Aparna Popat’s attempt to add a 10th consecutive crown in her kitty. The 28-year-old has decided to skip the forthcoming senior national championship after she was advised complete rest by the doctors.
 
Confirming this, Popat told Hindustan Times that the wrist, which has been troubling her for almost a year now, was “really really” hurting and there was no way she could play in the nationals that begin in Patna on January 20.
 
“I am myself disappointed as I was very keen to win the title again,” she said on Wednesday. “But the wrist injury is just not healing.”
 
Popat first complained of wrist pain just before the senior nationals in Bangalore last year but still went on to win her ninth consecutive crown, a record she shares with former All England champion Prakash Padukone. The Banglore-based shuttler then only represented India in the Uber cup qualifier in February after which she opted to stay away from the court for almost six months.
 
She returned to competition only last month during the major ranking championship in Jamshedpur but lost to Aparna Balan — only her third loss to an Indian in nine years — in the quarterfinals. “I played with a light racquet in Jamshedpur and was feeling fine. But once I reverted to my regular racquet it again began hurting,” she said.
 
Popat said the injury was an outcome of overuse and the doctor’s have made it clear that resting it was the only solution.
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