KUALA LUMPUR: Former World No 1 Lee Chong Wei will have to return to competitive action before Sept 15, or it would be almost impossible for him to qualify for next year’s Tokyo Olympic Games.
This is because the six-month (maximum) Badminton World Federation (BWF) protected ranking designated to the shuttler, who was diagnosed with nose cancer last July, is only valid for a year.
Since reaching the semi-finals of the Indonesia Open last year, the 37-year-old Malaysian has not played in any tournament and was even forced to put his much-awaited comeback on hold twice (All England and Malaysia Open) after being advised by his doctor in Taiwan.
The three-time Olympic silver medallist also looks doubtful for the Sudirman Cup in Nanning, China on May 19-26.
Following the conclusion of the Malaysia Open last week, Chong Wei has dropped to No 77 in the world rankings.
He is expected to drop out of the top-100 bracket later this month as he is also set to miss the Badminton Asia Championships (BAC) in Wuhan, China on Apr 23-28.
The New Zealand Open on Apr 30-May 5 will kick start the one-year Olympic qualifying period.
However, all is not lost for the Malaysian, whose protected ranking will only be activated once he plays his first match in a BWF sanctioned tournament.
This means that Chong Wei can make a comeback at the Australian Open on June 4-9, and still have his protected ranking of World No 3 (77,383 points) till the end of the year.
In fact, Chong Wei can even choose to make a return at the Taiwan Open on Sept 3-8 and still have six months of protected ranking after that.
The only downside is while the protected ranking allows Chong Wei to play in BWF World Tour tournaments and major events, it does not offer any seedings for the shuttler if his current world ranking is not high enough for the tournament.
In other words, the later Chong Wei makes a return, the harder it would get for him to collect enough points for Olympic qualification.
The world body will only consider the best 10 tournament results (BWF World Tour tournaments) over the one-year qualifying period.
A country is only allowed maximum representation of two players or pairs, if they are ranked within the top 16 (singles) or top eight (doubles).
So apart from having to worry about world ranking points, Chong Wei will also have to overtake several other Malaysian shuttlers, who are currently ranked above him.
The top two Malaysian shuttlers currently are Lee Zii Jia (No 23) and Liew Daren (No 25), while the rest who are ahead of Chong Wei include Chong Wei Feng (No 51), Soo Teck Zhi (No 71), Cheam June Wei (No 75) and Soong Joo Ven (No 76).
Chong Wei made it clear on Monday that he will only return when his body permits him, but the Penang-born had also hinted about making a fifth Olympic appearance next year.
It is not going to be easy for the ageing star, but then again nothing is impossible.
For the record, Spain’s Carolina Marin, South Korea’s Son Wan Ho and China’s Gao Fangjie are also out with long term injuries and have been designated protected rankings. They too are waiting to make a comeback.