BADMINTON whizz-kid Carolina Marín is already back in training – just eight days after an operation for a broken ligament.
The 26-year-old world number one crashed out of the Indonesian Open final on Sunday, January 27 where she was expected to beat Indian rival Saina Nehwal and was already 10-4 up.
Footage of the aborted match showed her writhing on the ground, crying in pain, then limping slowly off the court with help from medical staff.
A scan the next day showed up a broken ligament in the back of her right knee, and she went under knife on the morning of Tuesday, January 29.
Specialists said the Olympic gold medallist would need to undergo a long recovery period, with an initial six months off before she started getting back to match fitness.
But a video uploaded on Twitter this morning (Wednesday) showed the four-times European champion already in training, little more than a week after surgery.
“Day 8 – Who could imagine this the last Tuesday?” the sporting prodigy wrote in English, and then in Spanish.
The three-times world champion is shown sitting in a chair with a racquet in her hand, practising shots, whilst her injured leg is propped up in front of her on a pillow.
Carolina, from Huelva (Andalucía), is universally regarded as the best female badminton player in Spain’s sporting history, if not in the world, at least within living memory.
After her Rio 2016 gold, high hopes have been pinned on her to repeat the performance at Tokyo 2020, although a six-month enforced rest would mean a race against time to get back to full fitness and her best level of play.
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