Newly-crowned Thailand Open men’s doubles champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty have pulled out of the TOTAL BWF World Championships 2019 due to injuries.

Rankireddy is reportedly recovering from a shoulder problem, while Shetty is nursing an abdominal strain.

Announcing this decision on his Instagram account, Shetty said they expected to be back on the World Tour in September: “I and Satwik won’t be participating in this year’s BWF World Championships due to injuries which we were carrying through the Thailand Open. We could have played at the Worlds but there was a risk of aggravating the injury and missing out on tournaments in the future. And after discussing with the coaches and our physios we’ve decided to give it a miss and focus on the next set of World Tour events coming up in September in China and Korea. Difficult times but all we can do right now is rest so that we can come back on court as soon as possible to start our preparations for the upcoming tournaments.”

Given the form they were in, the Indian pair was expected to cause some ripples at the World Championships.

Local media also reported that mixed doubles player Pranaav Jerry Chopra will sit out the World Championships. His partner Sikki Reddy will however be seen in Basel with regular women’s doubles partner Ashwini Ponnappa.