India, Jan. 21 -- Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has confirmed her retirement from competitive badminton after a prolonged battle with a chronic knee condition that kept her away from the sport for the past two years. Speaking on Subhojit Ghosh's podcast yesterday, the 35-year-old said, "I stopped playing two years back. I entered the sport on my own terms and left on my own terms, so there was no need to announce it. If you aren't capable of playing anymore, that's it," she said. Explaining her decision, Saina said severe degeneration of her knee made sustained high-intensity training impossible: "You train eight to nine hours to be the best in the world, but now my knee was giving up in one or two hours. It was swelling and it became very tough to push after that. So I thought it's enough. I can't push it anymore." Saina had earlier sustained a knee injury at the 2016 Rio Olympics but made a strong comeback, winning bronze at the 2017 World Championships and gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. However, recurring knee issues continued to hinder her career, and in 2024, she revealed that arthritis and cartilage wear had made elite-level training extremely challenging. HTC...