Dipa Karmakar set to miss Commonwealth Games due to ACL injury

Dipa Karmakar was only 22 when she managed to impressed one and all at the Rio Games as she narrowly missed out on a podium spot finishing fourth. Two years later, Karmakar is still the only Indian gymnast to win a bronze medal in the CWG and the Asian Championships.

However, Karmakar has been out of action after an unfortunate knee injury which saw her undergo an Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) surgery in April last year. 

“She has starting training, but not at full throttle. We don’t want to take a chance at the moment as vaulting is very stressful to the injured knee,” her coach Bishweshwar Nandi told the Hindustan Times.

The Gymnastic Federation of India had made it clear that this would be they would complete the trials for the upcoming Games and the team would be decided by February 17. The trials for Rhythmic Gymnastics were held yesterday while the Artistic Gymnastics events were scheduled to be held today and tomorrow.

Karmarkar’s decision to miss the trials and subsequently the Commonwealth Games did not come as a surprise as the 24-year-old got back to full-fledged training only two months ago. Karmakar had hinted that she would not be part of the CWG team during her interview with in December.

“I have never said that I will participate in it; Sir (coach Bisweswar Nandi) will decide what to do. But I don’t want to go there for sightseeing. I would want to go to give a good performance there,” Karmakar had told Scroll.