Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal pulls out of Badminton Asia Team Championships

Interestingly, the same injury had prevented her from participating in the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold tournament and the 12th South Asian Games.

The Badminton Asia Team Championships is stated to be held at the Gachibowli stadium.

Her father stated that she pulled out long ago at the end of last month.

"Saina pulled out long ago, somewhere end of January. She took exemption from the Lucknow Open, South Asian Games and this tournament (Badminton Asia) starting in Hyderabad from Monday," he said.

She had also said in the communication to Badminton Association of India (BAI) that the recovery would take less time owing to the rest from the three competitive tournaments, according to him.

Saina, currently ranked world number two, is recovering and would be playing in the All England Championships, he said.

Saina Nehwal, Parupalli Kashyap ruled out of South Asian Games

"We've received a communication from BAI stating that the entire badminton squad except for Saina and Kashyap is arriving tomorrow afternoon," SAG (Shillong) joint CEO FR Kharkongor told PTI.

Saina and Kashyap are two of the top badminton athletes for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio.

Jwala Gutta has been confirmed as the captain of the Indian team by BAI President Akhilesh Das Gupta.

Das Gupta also hoped India would clinch all the medals on offer in badminton as they had in the previous edition in Bangladesh in 2010.

Sports Authority of India's (SAI) complex at the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) campus, on the outskirts of the city, will host the badminton meet from February 6-10.

Incidentally, the venue was in the spotlight and was cleared after a late reassessment from former India shuttler Pullela Gopichand after the infrastructure was reported to be not ready.

The controversy had begun after the organisers had decided to shift the venue for badminton discipline from Meghalaya to co-host Assam as the state government here had threatened to withdraw from co-hosting the Games.

Following the announcement of the state government to consider withdrawing from the SAC, the Games Technical Conduct Committee decided to send Gopichand to visit the venue to conduct a fresh assessment.