Tokyo: Japan’s World No. 1 men’s singles player Kento Momota underwent a surgery for an ‘orbital floor fracture’ in his right eye on Saturday, and is expected to be out for another three months.
The 25-year-old who survived a fatal car crash in Malaysia on Jan 13th where the van driver was killed on the scene, and was reportedly to had suffered bruising in different parts of his body and three facial lacerations after the accident. He officially returned to the Japanese national team training camp this past Monday after a few weeks of rest.
However, he was complaining of discomfort in his right eye and double vision while playing, and was diagnosed with orbital floor fracture (fracture to the eye socket) in an examination on Friday. An orbital fracture is when there is a break in one of the bones surrounding the eyeball (called the orbit, or eye socket). Usually this kind of injury is caused by blunt force trauma, when something hits the eye very hard. The injury seemed to be a direct result from last month’s fatal car accident.
Momota then opted to have surgery on his right eye on Saturday, and doctor anticipated the surgery would take about three months to fully recovered. This would be Momota’s latest setback on his preparations for the Tokyo Olympics.
The badminton’s highest-ranked player was originally aimed to return to competition at the All England Open starting from March 11 in Birmingham. But after the most recent surgery, no official announcement had been made about his next return date.
“This one really took me by surprise,” Japanese badminton head coach Park Joo Bong said in a statement released by Nippon Badminton Association. “We’ll just have to see how it goes after surgery. I want him to prioritize his recovery without rushing it.”
BadmintonPlanet would like to wish Kento Momota a speedy recovery, お大事に!
