JOIN USMalaysia's Lee Chong Wei, one of the few genuine threats to China's ambitions in the men's badminton, is still scrambling to be fit for his first-round match at the London Games after suffering a serious ankle injury.
"I'm not 100 percent recovered. I feel I'm training better and now about 90 percent recovered," the former world number one said at the Wembley Arena. "I know there is a lot of pressure but now I feel less pressure because of my injury. But this is my third Olympics and my final Olympics so gold is very important to me and my career."
Malaysia have won all of their Olympic medals in badminton and have pinned their hopes on
the team winning the country's first gold medal at London.
Lee, top seed here, raised hopes of breaking Malaysia's drought by reaching the final in
Beijing, but was obliterated by Chinese Lin Dan and had to settle for silver.
Lee remains Malaysia's greatest hope of gold but suffered a major setback in his preparations when he was sidelined for weeks after hurting his ankle in a Thomas Cup match in May.
Lin and a clutch of other dominant Chinese, including world number three Chen Long and fourth-ranked Chen Jin, are likely to stand in the way of Lee's title hopes.
Although topping badminton's rankings for much of his career, the 29-year-old Lee has never clinched an Olympic, world or Asian Games title, a gap on his resume he has long rued.