Heath Matthews, who was responsible for Saina Nehwal's physiotherapy following her right knee surgery last year, says badminton ace has achieved more than expected considering what she endured with her harsh injury
India's Saina Nehwal returns to Japan's Nozomi Okuhara during their BWF World Championships semi-final match in Glasgow on Saturday. Pic/AFP
While India's badminton ace Saina Nehwal was sweating her way to a World Championships bronze medal in Glasgow, one man was closely monitoring her every move on TV here in Mumbai with his laptop in front of him, noting down facts and stats. Heath Mathews, head of sports medicine at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital here, was even proudly smiling in between those frantic notations.
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Mathews was in-charge of Nehwal's physiotherapy and recuperation process following the surgical repair of her chipped right knee that led to a premature exit from last year's Rio Olympics. And though Saina was third on that World Championships podium, for Mathews she's on top-notch.
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Saina with her physio Heath Matthews. Pic/Twitter
"Winning a bronze at the Worlds just one year and four days after painfully bowing out of the Rio Olympics is a feat that not just Saina Nehwal but every badminton lover in India should be proud of. It was a near-impossible task and was only achieved because of her sheer grit and determination. You can have the world's leading technology at your fingertips and the best doctors on call, but if you are not mentally strong and focused to achieve your goal, you won't get there," Mathews told mid-day yesterday.
Mathews and Saina chalked out a series of goals when they got together immediately after her surgery last year. "We had planned that she would be back to competitive badminton in nine months, but she got back in six. We expected a medal a few months after that, but she's won a big one already. As part of our future plans, we want her to achieve the World No. 1 ranking in 18 to 24 months and win medals at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year. I'm meeting her in Bangalore tomorrow before she resumes training on Wednesday and I have no doubt that she will achieve all her goals on or before schedule," added Mathews.
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And as for those numbers he meticulously jotted down, here's an explanation. "In the first game of her quarter-final against Scotland's Kirsty Gilmour, the longest rally was when the score was 11-6 and before that rally Saina won 43 per cent of the rallies, but after that, she won 73 per cent and won the game. In the third game too, Saina won more than 70 per cent of the rallies after the longest rally which was mid-way. This goes to show that Saina recovered faster from exertion than her opponent. This speaks volumes of her improved fitness. However, I still believe that she's yet to attain close to 100 per cent fitness which was displayed by finalists PV Sindhu and Nozomi Okuhara. They were breathtaking," Heath signed off.
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