Top five badminton stars who took mid-career breaks

Some of these athletes required a time off for a variety of reasons.

The sport of badminton, which is sometimes thought of as a leisure pastime, calls for extreme physical preparedness, agility, and mental fortitude. Although it has a deceiving aspect, badminton can be a very difficult and brutal sport.

Badminton is everything but the pleasant sport that it is frequently thought to be. It is a punishing sport that pushes competitors to their absolute limits because of how physically demanding it is, how much cardiovascular activity it requires, the agility needed, and how it affects the body. It is impossible to underestimate the physical stamina, strength, and mental fortitude needed to succeed in badminton.

In order to participate in this sport, players must maintain top physical condition, stay injury-free, and improve their mental concentration. Given these requirements, it is clear that badminton is a strong and physically demanding sport that merits praise for its rigour and the exceptional athleticism it requires of its participants.

Let’s have a look on the athletes who took a break from the sport during their career

5. Lee Zii Jia

After losing in the first round of the Indonesia Open 2023, the number one men's singles player from Malaysia made his choice public. Former All England Open champion Lee Zii Jia was eliminated in the first round of the Indonesia Open 2023 after losing to India's Lakshya Sen.

The Malaysian shuttler has had a roller-coaster season, particularly after the Sudirman Cup. So far this season, the WR-11 has failed to reach the final of a single BWF World Tour competition, with his best finishes being semi-final appearances at the All England Open and Swiss Open. Lee Zii Jia announced an extended retirement from badminton after losing three consecutive games in 33 minutes to Lakshya Sen. After the result, he informed BWF that he was thinking about taking a hiatus till he rekindled his love for the game.

4. Lakshya Sen

Lakshya Sen is one the young and rising star of Indian Badminton. Sen's physical condition deteriorated as he travelled from Germany through Birmingham to Basel (more on that later). The European swing, where he needed to protect a lot of points to retain his standing, did not go as planned, and Sen knew it.

That's why he decided to take a vacation to rest and recharge. He said that “It’s important to take breaks and I wanted to share something with people out there." With ongoing tournaments and the level competition that has gone up, which makes it harder for him to keep up with the performance.

3. Kento Momota

Momota has definitely not been the same after the tragic highway accident in Kuala Lumpur in January 2020. The 28-year-old failed not even qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021, and his most recent triumph came in November 2021, at the Indonesia Masters. "People are saying Momota's time is over, Momota as we used to know it is gone," he said after defeating his friend and fellow 28-year-old Nishimoto in two games.

Momota still boasts one of the tour's most delicate strokes and lightest touches, as if the racket were an extension of his arm. He swings about as Merlin wields his wand. Momota, one of the top-line readers in the game, says his defense - his bread and butter - has been causing him trouble.

2. Chen Yufei

Chinese Olympic champion Chen Yufei expressed her exhaustion; she is not alone in feeling weary due to the sport's hectic scheduling and expectations. When Chinese Olympic champion Chen Yufei spoke frankly through social media about being "burned out," and then spoke about it to the public following her first-round triumph at All England, she was expressing fears that many other players will share.

While ACL and ankle are the most feared terms in the shuttle world, it is the devastating draining of the head of any joy of playing the sport that is frequently an unsaid feeling of the sport's finest competitors. A few phrases in Yufei's admission about how the strain of becoming an Olympic champion might take its toll jumped out. “Because of responsibility and because my name is Chen Yu Fei, I took my tired body to the courts and kept playing. However, I didn’t enjoy any of my matches nor did I look forward to them.”

1. Adam Hall

Refusing to address his concerns with coworkers or coaches, the 23-year-old spiralled into a state of bottled-up rage and resentment. His mental health worsened to the point that he spent nights at home "just sitting on the couch not doing anything." "I felt a little trapped." "Elite sport isn't easy of course. But my problem was that for nine months I just bottled everything up. I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to say I wasn't enjoying it," admitted Hall.

When asked to Hall if this is the end of the line for him, the 23-year-old said that he has no desire to quit badminton which he love playing for last 20 years. Adam Hall talked to Shirley Addison, a lifestyle advicer in the Institute of Sports and was on of the nicest person said by Adam Hall.

Adam opens up to Shirley and told her about all the problems he was facing, after listening to all, she asked me what I would do if I quit the sport. And it made me realise that I still wanted to play badminton. That made it easier to go on." Following Hall's statements, numerous athletes expressed their concerns, prompting them to withdraw from all competitive badminton.