Carolina pulls out of World C'ships

New Delhi: Three-time champion shuttler Carolina Marin's much-awaited return to competitive action got further delayed as she pulled out of the World Championship after failing to regain fitness following a knee injury. The Rio Olympics gold medallist had withdrawn from the All England Championships this year after suffering the injury during the Swiss Open. The 28-year-old had announced her plans of making a comeback at the home World Championships beginning in Huelva, Spain.

"I was having a really good season start, I had won four tournaments out of five. I was feeing very confident, strong and in a really good physical and psychological condition until just one bad movement broke my knee completely," Marin said in a video posted in her twitter handle. "Mentally it has been really hard to keep myself up, my priorities have been always health and well being. Therefore my team and myself have decided not to play the Huelva World Championship."