Injury updates

Aliya speaks warmly of the many video montages presented on her website - so nice to hear that she has been encouraged!

I believe that both Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova are currently in Germany. Aliya is undergoing an assessment of her rehabilitation progress, while Viktoria has undergone arthroscopic surgery to her injured ankle. (Thanks to Alan Owen for this information.)

Reading between the lines, I think there is fair reason to be optimistic that Viktoria will compete at worlds this autumn. Aliya's recovery was always going to take longer, but seems to be going well. She is obviously determined to compete in 2012 and it seems to be pretty much a business-as-usual attitude from her.

With Tatiana Nabieva also taking a rest to recuperate her painful back (due back in full training on the 25th May) the Russian team seems to have been beleaguered by injury recently. Well ... I suppose injuries are part of the sport; and it might actually be beneficial for the top girls to take a rest away from the risks of competition in this pre-Olympic year - the real competition begins next spring so there is a full year for recovery.

And in the meantime let's not forget that this gives the Russian team as a whole the opportunity to develop greater strength in depth. More gymnasts now have reason to fight for a place on the team. A team is only as good as its reserves, and this principle will be tested this autumn as the Russian team will surely be reliant at least partly on the quality of its reserves. The efforts of gymnasts such as Belokobylskaya are likely to be vital to their Olympic qualification efforts.

I'm also delighted to see Anna Dementyeva and Ksenia Afanasyeva perform so well at present, and only hope that they can build on their progress as the year goes on. And I would like to see Tanya Nabieva make an impression as an all around gymnast at last. She came 7th in the Rotterdam championships despite a disrupted training effort in the early part of the year so hopefully will be able to make up some ground this year.

These three gymnasts can surely only enhance their reputation this year with the growing importance of their contribution surely leading to greater effort and the close attentions of the coaching team. I would dearly love to see them all make the team for the 2012 Olympics, and trust they will put up a grand fight all the way to London ...