I'm confident of playing in 2009: Anup Sridhar

BANGALORE: Indian shuttler Anup Sridhar, whose niggling ankle injury had forced him to miss as many as seven tournaments after the Olympics, will now end the year without taking part in any more events.
The ace shuttler, who is undergoing a six-week rehabilitation programme to regain fitness for tournaments in 2009, will not participate in the China Super Series (November 18 to 23) and Hong Kong Super Series (November 24 to 30), as well as the Indian Challenger event in Lucknow.
Sridhar, who was initially told he had damaged ankle ligaments during pre-Olympic training, said his long injury layoff was not because of the recurrence of the same injury, but because he was suffering from posterior ankle infringement, a condition prevalent in most athletes in the world.
According to Sridhar, this condition prevented his ankle from being fully flexible.
"I was given an accurate diagnosis this time and that helped. It's been nearly three weeks into the rehabilitation programme, which includes a lot of swimming too and I feel much better already. I'm confident of playing in the new year," Sridhar said. The Bangalorean is set for another visit to his doctors in Mumbai on Wednesday.
"It's a routine check-up and they will let me know when I can start playing again, but my rehabilitation schedule continues for another three-and-a-half weeks. This time I'm positive I'll be 100% fit," he said.
Sridhar had earlier opted out of Asian and European circuit tournaments, including the Japan Super Series, China Masters Super Series, Macau Grand Prix Gold, Bitburger Open, Dutch Open, Denmark Super Series and the French Open Super Series, which saw his world ranking dip to 43, behind Chetan Anand (14) and Arvind Bhat (36).