Three-time Olympic medalist Yevgeny Plushenko withdrew Wednesday from the Rostelecom Cup, the Grand Prix event held in Moscow Nov. 22-24.
The Russian, who won Olympic gold in Torino and silver in both Salt Lake and Vancouver, registered a qualifying score for the Sochi Games a week ago at a small event in Latvia.
According to the Russian news outlet R-Sport, Plushenko suffered a knee injury in practice.
“Today during training [Plushenko] received a micro-injury of the left knee and doctors have recommended the athlete to decrease his workload,” Plushenko’s coach Alexei Mishin was quoted as saying on the Russian figure skating federation website, R-Sport reported.
"[Plushenko] can train, but it’s been recommended that he wait for competition in order to rule out any possible negative consequences,” Mishin was quoted as saying.
Plushenko has had several knee surgeries throughout his career and earlier this year had back surgery after pulling out of the European Championships midway through the competition.
The Russian figure skating federation president, Aleksander Gorshkov, said Plushnko would continue training in the near future.
“It’s obviously a shame that this has happened,” Gorshkov told R-Sport. “Plushenko’s an outstanding athlete, for many he’s an idol.”
The 31-year-old will need to perform well at the Russian national championships to secure his country’s lone men’s singles position in figure skating, though many feel as though the veteran is a lock for the position regardless. Eighteen-year-old Maksim Kovtun is seen as Plushenko’s biggest challenger. Kovtun was second at the Cup of China earlier this month.
