What’s the story?
Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar recently underwent surgery on her right knee, ruling her out for the Asian Championships scheduled to take place next month. She suffered an injury to her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) in training and went under the knife at a Mumbai hospital.
She posted an update on her Twitter account earlier this week, which also included images of her knee heavily bandaged. It read, “Hi everyone, there is an update. I recently injured myself in practice and underwent a surgery for ACL. Rehab is underway and I will return soon!”
In case you didn’t know...
The gymnast, who hails from Agartala in Tripura, burst into the limelight when she won a bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. She is one of the few gymnasts in the world who perform the dangerous ‘Produnova’ move in the vault event and finished fourth in the final at the Rio Olympics with a score of 15.066.
The heart of the matter
The 23-year-old, according to reports, is being attended to by renowned orthopaedic Dr. Anant Joshi, who will monitor her progress post-surgery. He has also treated Sachin Tendulkar in the past and has also served as a consultant to the BCCI.
She is a past bronze medal winner at the Asian Gymnastics Championships and also finished fifth at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, both firsts for India. She then became a household name across the country after her heroics in Rio de Janeiro last year.
She was awarded the Khel Ratna following her Olympic exploits and even the Padma Shri recently, which is India’s fourth highest civilian honour. In January, she was honoured by India’s postal department, who unveiled a special stamp featuring Karmakar along coach Bishweshwar Nandi.
What next?
Recovering from an ACL injury is quite a long process and it will take a few months before Karmakar will be able to compete.
Author’s Take
It is extremely disheartening to know about such an injury to one of India’s most promising athletes. We hope she makes a swift and speedy recovery!
