Vikas Krishan could not even lift his hand two days before the fight, reveals Neeraj Goyat

Vikas Krishan was a shadow of himself during the bout against Japan's Sewon Okazawa in the first round of the 69kg welterweight category on July 24 in the ongoing Tokyo Olympics. He was left bloodied and bruised, coupled with an unflattering scoreline of 5-0 by the Japanese boxer.

He looked off his game right from the beginning, and his opponent made the most of it by being aggressive with his combination punches. His body jabs opened up Krishan and in the very first round, the tone of the fight was set. The Indian spent most of the time dodging his opponent and his counterattacks were missing the sweet spots.

In the second round, he was left with a cut above his eye, and during the rest of the fight, blood kept dripping from that wound.

His close friend and boxer Neeraj Goyat revealed the reasons behind Krishan's lacklustre performance in what could be the final Olympics for the 29-year-old.

"In his last sparring session before leaving for Tokyo, he got injured. He suffered from tendon inflammation in his shoulder. It had swollen. It happened on July 12 or 13 in the second round of sparring. After that he could not use that hand at all.

"He went to the room and applied ice. The doctor came and said that he cannot treat it before three days or until the swollenness has reduced. So for three days, no sparring and he applied ice. Then after three days, he felt a little better but still could not spar. While running or jogging he could feel the pain," he revealed to Olympics.com.

Goyat had also travelled to Italy to help his friend prepare for the Olympics and was a constant support for Krishan. When he left for Tokyo, Goyat returned to India. 

"After reaching Tokyo, while touching up with Manish Kaushik, he hurt the same area. He could not even lift up his arm after that. Then the MRI was done and the extent of the injury was ascertained. He even borrowed a gel kind of thing from Chirag (Shetty, badminton player) to reduce his swelling. That did not help him much," Goyat added.

When everything had failed, Krishan opted to go for a pain killer injection. 

"He had to mail to WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), to check if he could take that injection which probably has steroids. After he got the green signal from WADA, he took the injection but was advised to rest for three days. But there was no time. He had to fight within on July 24."

India's high-performance director Santiago Nieva also confirmed the same. 

"When he attempted a jab at Okazawa's body he hurt the shoulder again. After that he could not use his left hand and fought with one hand only," Nieva commented. 

Krishan is set to return to India in the wee hours of Tuesday morning. 

"Once he returns we will get another MRI done over here. I had suffered the same kind of injury in 2013. It will take almost two to three months to get fit again," Goyat stated.