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Valentina Rodionenko - 'Mustafina will have knee surgery after Glasgow'

In a report in Stadium.ru, Russia's head coach Valentina Rodionenko has revealed that Aliya Mustafina will travel to Germany post-Glasgow for surgery on her knee ligaments.  The extent of the injury is unclear but Rodionenko says that it was during a period of rest that the problem became evident.  Aliya is in good spirits and it is expected that she will be ready to compete in Rio if not at the Europeans.  

Of perhaps more immediate concern is the health of Russian team captain Ksenia Afanasyeva who has been suffering from a kidney infection recently. Her participation at Worlds will be dependent on how she feels.

Good luck to all the girls, and our best wishes to Aliya and Ksenia for a full recovery!  

Source - http://www.stadium.ru/reportsandcomments/interview/person/1653/15-10-2015-glavnie-konkurenti-na-chempionate-mira-kitai-ssha-yaponiya

UPDATE - Andrei Rodionenko 16/10 has confirmed Aliya has a torn meniscus, will have surgery immediately after Glasgow needing two months to recover.  

Aliya has said 'missing the 2011 Worlds did not prevent me from winning gold at the 2012 Olympics'.  

Fighting talk from our wonderful Queen again!

Ksenia Afanasyeva has kidney stones, in hospital for a week.  Back in training for two days.  Will compete vault, beam, floor to help team if the pain has eased.  She says she had hoped for medals at EF but doesn't know if she is capable after this illness.

Comments

  1. Sorry but i dont believe this woman anymore!

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    1. Don't shoot the messenger ...
      This presumably explains Shelgunova's replacement of Dmitrieva. Dmitrieva had the potential to contribute more in a finals format on specific apparatus, while Shelgunova has more to offer across the board in a quals format - and has more experience and maturity. The Russians are trying to make sure that they qualify for Rio. If they have a meltdown, it could be a poor result for them as a team and medals are now secondary.

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    2. OMG, this is terrible news! I hope it is not true. Will Mustafina ever catch a break?

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    3. Shelgunova has done as well as Dmitrieva over the last year on floor scoring-wise (if you consider the Russian Championships, Cup, and Batumi). Shelgunova contributes more on vault and bars (Shelgunova does a DTY/reports that she is working an Amanar and Dmitrieva does a Podkopayeva). They are both good at beam. Shelgunova after the Russian Championships had the 4th highest all around D score in the World (even higher than Seda). People says that Shelgunova does not have a strong event. Shelgunova has four strong events and immense difficulty for a Russian gymnast. Shelgunova like; Podkopayeva, Gutsu, Shannon Miller, Komova, Mustafina, etc, needs some time to hone in her difficulty and learn to perform consistently. She needs the international experience to become great like the others. That is why I'm happy that they might give her a chance like they keeping giving Seda who is about the same level as her. I hope that the Russian delegation will use this opportunity at Worlds to give experience to some of the younger gymnasts that can be big contributors next year and beyond vs. using girls that are only internationally competitive on one or two events that will never add enough difficulty on the other events to compete internationally. Komova and Mustafina will not stay around forever and we need more all around gymnasts with good scoring potential needing some polish and international experience.

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    4. Ugh this entire comment frustrates me! Shelgunova has no strong events, she has 4 weak events and to compare her to greats like Podkopayeva, Miller, and Mustafina seems insulting to them. Mustafina did not need time to hone her difficulty, she came right out of the junior ranks with a Team gold, AA gold , and several event medals. Shelgunova is a 3rd year senior who has never seen a major elite competition, her technique is horrendous, and she can not sucessfully compete the difficulty you claim she has. You also cannot compare Shelgunova to Seda. Seda is a first year senior, she can compete the difficulty she has, and could contend for medals. She has great technique and a powerful body capable of adding difficulty, and she is simply better then Shelgunova who is two years older! Bringing Seda for experience makes sense because she is a huge contender for the Olympics while Shelgunova is not. Shelgunova is a B team gymnast and I just think it is insulting to be comparing her to Mustafina and the other greats. She is lucky that the Russian team has seen so much injurirs, otherwise she wouldn't even be a non traveling alternate. Shelgunova is not internationally competitive on any event and Worlds is about winning medals, not giving experience to girls who make no impact on the team, have no future, and are frankly, useless. At the beginning of the year Russia looked strong and competitive but the fact that they are forced into putting Shelgunova on the team is embarassing and depressing and doesn't make this year seem too promising for Russia.

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    5. Worlds is always the highlight of my year but I almost don't want to watch. Went from an amazing outlook at the beginning of the year, Mustafina, Komova doing AA, Afan looking great, Alla competitive on vault, they had immense potential. Now Mustafina is out (though she has been pictured in the training lineup, instagram zanindima, not sure why that is), Komova has regressed, Afan may be out, and Shelgunova is now on the team?! Ew! If Afan can't compete, they could easily not medal. Though the team final may be a mess, I am looking forward to event finals, Russia could have a girl medal on every event (not to jinx it!), hopefully they can get the job done. Russia really has had some bad times lately, so sad to see :(

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  2. Sorry but if Mustafina has a knee ijury, then how she can now participate in tv show about circus? Here dressing rooms of show participants https://instagram.com/p/85AF0XPlay/?taken-by=golotsutskova_vera

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    Replies
    1. I don't think Valentina would completely fabricate a story like this. The knee injury does not have to be severe to require surgery.
      It is clear that Aliya is at least a guest on one of these programmes, but we don't have any definite information as yet. It's impossible to draw conclusions from an Instagram post, apart from the obvious.

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  3. If Afan does not compete, does that mean that Shelgunova takes her place and then who will be the alternate? Is the injury to Aliya that severe? Hopefully not, I would like her to defend her uneven bars title at the Olympics.

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  4. Today A.Rod tell the press that Aliya does not has a knee injury and only has a back problems also strange things about Aliya health and gymnastic future ..... http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20151016/871796191.html P.S . all that happened to Mustafina last 2 month - it's absurd! Sorry but i can't handle this shit anymore!

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    Replies
    1. It is Andrei Rodionenko speaking and he doesn't refute Aliya's possible (?fictional?) knee injury, he just says she has back problems. This is being reported today but we do not know the dates of the respective interviews. So we are no wiser about anything really!

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    2. Here about new knee surgery in Russia for Mustafina http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=98436 http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=98435 and about back problems http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20151016/871799561.html and all this interviews from today pressday on Round Lake

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  5. About Mustafina operation from V.Rod RSport todays article http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20151029/875348805.html

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