Solid feat: Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik beat Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen to win the Olympic bronze medal despite the injury.
PETALING JAYA: Men’s doubles shuttler Soh Wooi Yik will not be rushed into returning to competitions with Aaron Chia after sustaining a toe fracture.
Wooi Yik picked up the injury in the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics against China’s world No. 1 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang and has been ruled out of the Hong Kong Open from Sept 10-15 with Aaron.
Men’s doubles coach Tan Bin Shen hopes the 26-year-old will be fully fit in time for the China Open from Sept 17-22 but will not rush his charge’s recovery.
“Wooi Yik underwent a scan on Tuesday, and the results have been positive. He has started light skill training,” said Bin Shen.“But he has not resumed full-court training yet. We will only send him to tournaments once he’s back on court.
“For now, I can confirm that he will not compete in the Hong Kong Open next week, but we will continue to monitor his condition to see if he can play in China.
“The priority is to ensure he makes a full recovery before committing to any tournaments,” added Bin Shen.
Wooi Yik and Aaron went down to Weikeng-Wang Chang in Paris but managed to beat Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen to win the bronze medal despite the injury.
“Wooi Yik actually picked up the injury during the semi-finals. Despite the pain, he managed to play in the bronze medal match,” said Bin Shen.
“It’s important that he does not rush his recovery now. The doctors have stressed that his bone needs time to heal properly.”
Wooi Yik and Aaron, who were also forced out of the back-to-back Japan and Korean Opens, will not lose significant ranking points by missing the Hong Kong tourney as they also could not play in last year’s edition due to injury.
However, the world No. 3 duo will lose points if Wooi Yik cannot recover in time for the China Open as they finished runners-up in the competition last year.
Aaron-Wooi Yik’s hopes of qualifying for the prestigious season ending World Tour Finals from Dec 11-15 in Hangzhou also hinges on the latter’s recovery.
Currently, the pair are in 11th spot in the Race to Hangzhou rankings and are facing a tough battle with fellow Malaysians Mohd Haikal Nazri-Choong Hon Jian (No. 6), Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani (No. 7) and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (No. 8) to make the cut.
A country can only have two pairs in the World Tour Finals if both are ranked in the top eight by the end of the season this year.
Besides the Hong Kong and China tourneys, the other competitions rated Super 500 and above left this year before the Tour Finals are the Arctic Open (Oct 8-13), Denmark Open (Oct 15-20), Japan Masters (Nov 12-17) and China Masters (Nov 19-24).
