Thailand Open: India's Kidambi Srikanth left with bloodied nose after swab collection, expresses frustration

COVID-19 tests have become a norm for athletes participating in various tournaments around the world. From football, cricket, tennis and other major sport, players and staff have been regularly tested, even twice in some cases, to avoid the spread of the dreaded virus in between a tournament or series. While there have been cases where athletes have expressed their frustration over swab collection, Indian badminton star Kidambi Srikanth took to social media platform Twitter to show some photographs where his nose was left bleeding after the test.

Srikanth, who is in Bangkok for the ongoing Thailand Open, posted three photographs on Twitter on Tuesday as he expressed his anger over the swab collection. The photographs showed his bloodied nose and blood-soaked tissues.

Srikanth in his post wrote that players take care of themselves for matches and don’t participate to shed blood like this referring to the bloodied nose. He added that since landing in Thailand, he gave four tests for coronavirus and none of them was pleasant.

“We take care of ourselves for the match not to come and shed blood for THIS . However , I gave 4 tests after I have arrived and I can’t say any of them have been pleasant . Unacceptable,” Srikanth wrote.

A bit of blood during swab test is common but Srikanth’s nose was bleeding heavily, which irked the Indian shuttler.

As fans expressed their anger after seeing Kidambi’s bloodied nose, Parupalli Kashyap also reacted by posting an angry emoji.

Srikanth has been drawn with Sourabh Verma in the first round of Thailand Open with the match scheduled to be played on Wednesday.

Here's how fans reacted:

While for the rest of the Indian squad, the Thailand Open will be the first event in almost 10 months, Srikanth had participated in the Denmark Super 750 in October.

Talking to Olympic channel he said, "I would like to be physically fit and do well in all the tournaments that I play. The New Year resolution that I managed to hold onto was to get physically better. I think I managed to work on my physical fitness and get better."

Srikanth’s maiden BWF Grand Prix title came at the Thailand Open in 2013.

Earlier on Tuesday, the likes of Saina Nehwal, HS Prannoy and Parupalli Kashyap pulled out of the Thailand Open. While Saina and Prannoy tested positive for COVID-19, Kashyap came in close proximity with a positive player.