Kashyap likely to skip Korea Open with injured shoulder

Parupalli Kashyap also set to skip Korea Open.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) After Saina Nehwal, India’s leading male shuttler Parupalli Kashyap is also likely to skip the season opening $600,000 Korea Open Super Series in January due to a partially dislocated shoulder.

The World No.14 said that he will likely pull out of Korea (Jan 7-12) but will play Malaysia Open Super Series Premier (Jan 14-19) and will defend his title at the India Grand Prix Gold (Jan 21-26).

“I partially dislocated my shoulder last week. It was almost on the verge of dislocation but came back into position; this is called subluxation. Most likely now I will pull out of the Korea Open as I did not train much because of the shoulder,” Kashyap told IANS at the Siri Fort Sports Complex here Friday.

“I had to stop practicing for 4-5 days and it is difficult to get back into playing mode when you stop training. If I am not feeling completely fit, I would not play. I will probably recover in another week. Malaysia and India is the plan right now.”

The former World No.6 is in the national capital to participate in the ongoing Senior National Badminton Championships. However, Kashyap missed the team championships due to the injury but has decided to play with a strapped shoulder in the individual championship where he is the defending champion,

“The shoulder is not 100 percent but I have got my physio and he has strapped it really hard. This is one of the tournaments I was looking forward to. I wanted to play the team event as well but this injury happened just three days before the tournament so I could not play. I am recovering and will try and give my best here,” he said.

The Hyderabadi had a fantastic 2012 by reaching the quarterfinals of the London Olympics and attained a career best ranking of World No.6. He also won the year-ending India Grand Prix Gold in Lucknow. But his performance graph has gone down in 2013.

“This year has been decent for me. It wasn’t a great season but I won’t say it was bad. I reached the quarterfinal at All England and missed the medal at the World Championships by a point. If I would have got that point, it would have been an excellent year,” said the 27-year-old, who was on the verge of a bronze medal at matchpoint against China’s Du Pengyu in the Olympic quarterfinal, only to give it away and then lose the match.

“That point would have turned this okay year into the best one. But that is how things stand. After that I got injured during the Indian Badminton League (IBL) and could not recover as I was continuously playing tournaments,” added Kashyap, who in the icon player of Banga Beats in the IBL.