HONG KONG number one Dawn Olsen was ruled out of the Pak Fah Yeow Women's World Championships by a recurring back injury which also cast a shadow over her hopes of playing at the East Asian Championships in October.
Olsen, whose last competition was the East Asian in Manila last July, had entered for the world tournament qualifiers starting on June 25 and had been training exceptionally hard getting back into form.
The tough training in the past two months, however, took its toll and she pulled a muscle in her lower back a week ago.
'I've been doing lots of weight training and drills getting ready for the World Championships qualifiers, which was actually part of my preparation for the East Asian,' said Olsen.
'But the training took its toll and I hurt my back again. I've had to slow down on my training now as I still hope to play in the East Asian.' The Pak Fah Yeow tournament has attracted the best field ever assembled for the World Championships with the top 27 ranked players all coming.
Only the top 24 will go directly into the 32-player main draw and there are another 21 overseas entries for the qualifiers.