Ace shooter Heena Sidhu on Tuesday consoled reigning Commonwealth Games champion shuttler Parupalli Kashyap, who will miss the upcoming Rio Olympics following a knee injury.
Already out of the Indian badminton team for Rio, the 29-year-old shuttler on Sunday expressed his disappointment at being out of action for the past couple of months.
"It's been a tough 2 months, but I would really like to thank all of you for your continued support. I'm finally back to moving on court but would take a couple of months before I get to playing any tournament," Kashyap wrote on his Facebook page.
Moved by his words, Heena, who had booked her Rio berth in 10 metre air pistol, invited the shuttler to join the Rio-bound Indian contingent.
"I feel for you, nothing can keep you from Olympics. Grab a ticket and fly to Rio. We are all a team. It will be great to have you there," she tweeted.
Kashyap, who missed most of the action towards the end of last year due to injury, also excused himself from the South Asian Games (SAG) in February to recover in time but when he returned to the court, his knee snapped again.
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However, the dream of making it to a second consecutive Olympics dashed when the Hyderabadi failed to find himself among the top 16 by May 4 -- the cut-off date for Rio.
--IANS
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