Saina Nehwal battling with arthritis, to take a call on retirement by end of 2024

Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal is contemplating on retirement and said that she would take a decision on the future of her badminton career by the end of 2024.

Speaking on Gagan Narang’s podcast ‘House of Glory’, Saina said she has been troubled by arthritis and her cartilage is in a bad shape. “The knee is not very good. I have arthritis. My cartilage has gone to a bad state. It is very difficult to push for eight-nine hours,” Saina said.

The 34-year-old was a former World No. 1 and was the first Indian badminton player to win an Olympic medal when she won the bronze medal in the London Olympics 2012. She participated in three Olympics and won the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 and 2018.

Speaking about how injuries have hampered her training schedule, the Indian badminton star said she is only able to manage training for about two to three hours and that is not enough to compete at the highest level in the sport. “How will you challenge the best players in the world in such a state? I think I will have to accept it somewhere. Because two hours of training is not good enough to play with the highest level of players and get the desired results,” she told Narang.

Saina said the day to retire from the sport has crossed her mind and she said she will take a call by the end of the year, depending on how she is feeling. “I am also thinking about retirement. It will be sad because it is like a job that a normal person does. Obviously, a sports person’s career is always a short one. I started at the age of 9. I will be 35 next year. I have had a long career and I am very proud of that. I have broken my body to a great extent. I am happy with what I have done and given it all. I will assess how I feel by the end of this year,” she said.

Saina Nehwal’s last international match was the Singapore Open in 2023 in which she lost to Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 21-13, 21-15 in the first round.