Bengaluru, June 19 -- Months after Saurav Ghosal came out of retirement and won a PSA Challenger title, the squash pro is coming to terms with a difficult decision. The first Indian male player to break into the top 10, Saurav had announced his retirement in April last year. Early this year, he returned with the goal of making it to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics for squash's debut. That dream has now been extinguished. "Basically, I can't play anymore," Saurav told HT, fighting back emotions. "My right hip is gone. There's too much degeneration. It's essentially early-stage arthritis of the bone. The specialists have said they can manage it for maybe 12-18 months - but three and a half years is something they can't guarantee. Apparently, the damage can't be reversed. So, if I don't have a guarantee that I can properly try for the Olympics, then it seems futile in the grand scheme of things." Had the Olympics been next year, Saurav says he would have put his body on the line. "I would have tried to manage it with PRP injections and artificial cartilage injections if it were the Olympics instead of the Asian Games next year." Next year's Asian Games, which he originally planned to play when he announced his comeback, "doesn't make sense" for him anymore without the end goal of the Olympics. "An individual Asian Games gold would be nice, but it doesn't pull me hard enough." For the 38-year-old, the diagnosis hit like a cold shower from hell. "Now when I look back, since early last year, I've been having issues with my glute and abductor. Only now do we know that it's because the hip is degenerating. When I was in Sydney, I wasn't able to stretch properly after matches because it was hurting. I played through the tournament and afterwards I was limping. I got an MRI done and that's when I learnt I have a condition called Avascular Necrosis (AVN). Doctors think that the AVN has been triggered by early arthritis. I've been told that I might need a hip replacement at some point. It could be in five years or ten years." Eager to pull all stops for LA 2028, Saurav even considered going for a hip replacement surgery right away. "It takes nine to twelve months for the prosthesis to set fully. The time frame to qualify for the Olympics then becomes harder... Everything put together, it's like running up a hill the entire time."...