Zhang Jike withdraws from team trials for World Championships

SHENZHEN, China, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Chinese paddler Zhang Jike pulled out from the team trials for the World Table Tennis Championships, scheduled to be held in Dusseldorf, Germany in May, due to his foot injury here on Monday.

Zhang announced the withdrawal after enduring a three-game losing streak on Sunday, defeated by his teammates Xu Chenhao, Xu Xin and Zhou Yu. The last match against Zhou Yu was put off for 30 minutes because of the inflammation on his left foot. Although the former world number one decided to continue, but his performance was affected by the injury and eventually lost the game 7-11, 1-11 in just 15 minutes.

"It was obvious that he was restricted by the injury. When I hit the ball with large angles, he could hardly move to hit the ball back," said Zhou Yu after the match.

Grand Slam Zhang had his left foot wrenched at the end of last year and had missed the Qatar Open last month.

According to the competition rules, the team trials are divided into two stages. Zhang is currently out from the stage one but still has chance to appear in the stage two, if he can come back from the injury in time.