Pioneering Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal has confirmed her retirement from competitive badminton, mentioning the strain of a chronic knee condition that has pushed her off the courts for two years.

The 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist's last competitive event was in the 2023 Singapore Open, though she chose not to formally announce her retirement at the time.

“I had stopped playing two years back. I actually felt that I entered the sport on my own terms and left on my own terms, so there was no need to announce it,” Saina said on a podcast with Subhojit Ghosh.

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“If you are not capable of playing anymore, that's it. It's fine," she added.

The former world No. 1 mentioned a severely deteriorated knee as the reason behind her decision.

"Your cartiledge has totally degenerated, you have arthritis, that's what my parents needed to know that, my coaches needed to know that, and I just told them, 'Now probably I can't do it anymore, it is difficult.' Slowly people will also realise that Saina is not playing," she said.

The Olympic medallist expressed that her knees couldn't handle even the tiniest training, making a decision she deemed unavoidable.

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“I didn't think it was such a big matter to announce my retirement. I just felt my time was up because I couldn't push much, that my knee is not able to push like before,” she said.

"You train eight to nine hours to be the best in the world, now my knee was giving up in one or two hours. It was swelling and it became very tough to push after that. So I thought it's enough. I can't push it anymore,” the former world No. 1 said.