Played without knee protection to win bronze, says wrestler Bajrang Punia

India wrestler Bajrang Punia holds the tricolour during the closing ceremony yesterday. Pic/PTI

Star India wrestler Bajrang Punia on Sunday revealed that his knee injury forced him to skip mat training for nearly three weeks which severely hampered his Olympic preparations and he took the mat for the bronze play-off without any knee protection, going against the advice of his support staff.

Bajrang had skipped the Poland Open, the last ranking event before the Tokyo Games, arguing that he needed training more than the points and headed to Russia, where he trained and also ended up injuring his right knee by choosing to compete in a local event - Ali Aliev tournament.

On June 25, competing in the semi-finals of tournament against Abulmazhid Kudiev, the U-23 European silver medallist, Bajrang endured a painful move and suffered the injury.

Bajrang Punia. Pic/PTI

Bajrang was off-colour in his first three bouts in Tokyo but played his usual tactical and aggressive game in the do-or-die bronze medal bout and comfortably beat Daulet Niyazbekov from Kazakhstan to earn a podium finish.

"I could not do mat training for nearly 25 days. I was not able to run as well after the injury. Before a tournament like Olympics even missing one day's training is not good," Bajrang said.

"My coaches and physio wanted me to continue to play with taped knee in the bronze bout. But I don't feel comfortable. It feels like someone has tied my leg, so I told them even if injury happens I can rest later but if I don't win medal now all the work will be lost, so I went all out," he said.

"The doctors wanted me to come back to India for treatment [from Russia] but I told them it was not possible [at that time]. And there was a risk of getting the virus [COVID-19] during the travel. So I did my rehab in that small Russian village and got all the equipments that I needed with the help of Indian embassy in Moscow," he said.

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