NEW DELHI: Trailblazer Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal, who has been out of action for the last two years due to a chronic knee condition, has confirmed her retirement from competitive badminton, saying her body can no longer cope with the physical demands of elite sport.
The 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist last played a competitive match at the Singapore Open in 2023 but did not formally announce her retirement at the time.
“I had stopped playing two years back. I actually felt that I entered the sport on my own terms and left on my own terms, so there was no need to announce it,” Saina said on a podcast.
“If you are not capable of playing anymore, that’s it. It’s fine.”
The former world No. 1 said the decision was forced by severe degeneration of her knee, which made sustained high-intensity training impossible.
“Your cartilage has totally degenerated, you have arthritis, that’s what my parents needed to know, that my coaches needed to know, and I just told them, ‘Now probably I can’t do it anymore, it is difficult’,” she said.
Saina reiterated that she did not see the need for a formal retirement announcement, believing her absence from competition would make the situation clear.
“Slowly people will also realise that Saina is not playing,” she said.
The Olympic medallist explained that her knees were no longer able to endure even limited training sessions, bringing finality to a decision she described as unavoidable.
“I didn’t think it was such a big matter to announce my retirement. I just felt my time was up because I couldn’t push much, that my knee is not able to push like before,” she said.
“You train eight to nine hours to be the best in the world. Now my knee was giving up in one or two hours. It was swelling and it became very tough to push after that. So I thought it’s enough. I can’t push it anymore,” she added.
Saina’s career was significantly impacted by a career-threatening knee injury sustained at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Although she made a strong comeback to win a World Championships bronze in 2017 and the Commonwealth Games gold in 2018, recurring knee issues continued to disrupt her progress.
In 2024, she revealed that she has arthritis in her knees and that her cartilage has worn away, making it extremely difficult to train at the intensity required for top-level competition.