Defending champion Kento Momota has withdrawn from next week’s badminton world championships with a back injury while most Indonesian players have pulled out due to coronavirus concerns, offi-cials said Wednesday.
The world number two’s back problem had al-ready forced him to withdraw from the World Tour Finals in Indonesia last week, and the Japanese player has returned home.
His withdrawal from the world championships is a further blow for Momota, who has had a turbu-lent two years since suffering a career-threatening car crash in Malaysia.
He flopped at the Tokyo Games, and was re-cently overtaken as world number one by Olympic champion Viktor Axelsen. All Indonesian players who are members of the country’s national association h.—APP
