Malaysia's Lee Zii Jia leaves national team, gets thumbs up from Olympic champ Axelsen

Malaysia's top men's singles badminton player, Lee Zii Jia, has officially resigned from the country's national team.

The 23-year-old, who is ranked seventh in the world, has opted to continue his career as an independent player as he gears up for his first appearance of the 2022 season.

Lee, who has been with the national team since he was 13-years-old, clinched the prestigious All England Open title last March and was even considered an medal favourite on his Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.

Many in the country hoped that he would surpass the accolades of three-time Olympic silver medallist Lee Chong Wei, but the youngster shared with the Badminton Association of Malaysia that he was unable to cope with the pressure thrust upon him as the nation's top shuttler.

Despite a strong and promising start to last season including the All England win, the second half of 2021 saw Lee struggle to maintain that form.

He was beaten in the last-16 round of the Tokyo 2020 Games to defending champion Chen Long of China, before a hectic schedule for all players with back-to-back major tournaments in Denmark, followed by Indonesia, before the World Championships in Huelva, Spain.

Lee's fitness levels were questioned after he retired from a couple of tournaments and suffered early exits in others.

The Malaysian is not the first to quit the national team. Senior men's doubles and mixed doubles pairs have opted down the independent route over the last few years, but Lee's exit is seen as the most high profile departure from the national squad, particularly given that there is no other player of his caliber representing Malaysia.

He will now await the decision of the Badminton Association of Malaysia to determine if he will face sanctions for a contractually "premature" exit from the team.

Lee's move to become an independent player has gained the support of reigning Olympic men's singles champion, Viktor Axelsen, who also parted ways with his own national team following his triumph at the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021.

The Dane, who is now based in Dubai, shared his support on social media, saying, "If a player (in this case Lee Zii Jia) feels it's best for him to follow another path where he is more independent as a player, then that is what he should do IMO (in my opinion). It's his career and his life after all."

At the 2021 world championships, Axelsen told Olympics.com that he could see more people competing as independent players on the BWF World Tour.

"It's just a matter of time, I think, you know, financially, badminton is also getting stronger, and players also have their own opinion about certain stuff," he shared.

"Sometimes [it's best] to do something else and try something new in order to get more motivation and maybe try to improve on some areas... for example, having your own team around you. So we'll see what happens in the future."