Prannoy set to return to Badminton competition after beating back Chikungunya and self-doubt

Five months of dealing with immense pain and much uncertainty that Chikungunya brings along and embarking on a mindful training programme, HS Prannoy will compete in the Malaysia Open 2025 this week. His last competitive appearance was in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games competition where he braved pain to get past the group stage only to run in to compatriot Lakshya Sen in the round of 16.

With a potential second round clash with seventh-seeded Shi Feng Li (China), Prannoy’s resilience will be called to the forefront early in the demanding, and even unforgiving, BWF World Tour Super 1000 event. He is scheduled to compete in the India Open, a Super 750 event, in New Delhi the following week and will be hoping that he can rustle up good performances on return to court.

“To be honest, I have been very motivated to come back, train and play again.  I have never being this motivated in my life to play at the highest level again,” he said a few weeks ago when he resumed training. He was happy, relieved and grateful that he could return to his journey of being among the world’s best Badminton players. 

He contracted Chikungunya in July, a few weeks before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and was admitted in hospital for a few days. He said his body just broke down on return from Paris, with painful joints. For days, he was not able to get off on the bed. Later, he would not be able to perform simple tasks such as opening a car door or changing his shirt or carry his own bags from an aircraft because of the acute pain.

Though he never doubted returning to sport despite the uncertainty, he decided to freeze his ranking (then No. 22). “This was a state of my body where hardly anyone has an answer. We don't have any medication for Chikungunya and Dengue.  But my belief that I would be back did not waver,” he said just after having resumed training.

Prannoy has been clear that he would return to competition only when he was fit enough. “I was not even thinking about ranking or anything else. I just wanted to be in a position where I could train for a good five to six weeks without pain. When you slowly start training again, you feel you feel things are returning to normal. That feeling is always special. You always love that feeling,” he said.

For all that, as he gets set to meet Canada’s Brian Yang in his opening encounter in the Malaysia Open in the Stadium Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Prannoy he knows he has to start all over again. “Yes, sometimes you are again starting from the scratch. Let alone training and playing, there were times when I prayed to be pain free and do my day-to-day activities,” he said.

As he prepares to face a 23-year-old opponent who is ranked just two rungs below his own World Rank No. 28, Prannoy’s fans will hope that he will not have not lost any of his acumen or hunger on court that has helped him rise to being World No. 6 for a couple of weeks in September 2023.

“You feel happy that there is still an opportunity to play. For, quite a few times in your career, after an injury or after a health issue, you feel that it is probably your last chance. Sometimes when the pain is so bad, you think ‘Is my career done?’ These kind of questions do come up to your head,” ,” he said during the telephonic conversation. But those thoughts will have been banished. Well and truly.