Dr. Sohrab Keyhani said that the surgery has gone excellent, hoping that the athlete could get back to the mat in the determined time.
“He had a complete torn ACL and performing surgery was a good decision,” he said. According to physicians, Karimi needs seven months to gain full recovery.
He suffered a knee injury in late December 2019 at the World Wrestling Clubs Cup held in Bojnurd, northeast Iran. Doctors had been using a non-aggressive PRP therapy combined with special training to treat his injury so that he could reach the 2020 Olympics. In early March, he announced his return to the mat and continuation of his training in his hometown Karaj.
However, as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed for a year, the medical team of the wrestling federation was mulling over whether to perform surgery or not.
Karimi needs to win the required points in qualifying events to secure his ticket to Tokyo.
Iranian freestyle team has so far gained three out of six quotas for the Olympics. The qualifying events have been postponed for 2021.
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