Star India wrestler Bajrang Punia on Sunday revealed that his knee injury forced him to skip mat training for nearly three weeks which severely hampered his Olympic preparations and he took the mat for the bronze play-off without any knee protection, going against the advice of his support staff.

Bajrang had skipped the Poland Open, the last ranking event before the Tokyo Games, arguing that he needed training more than the points and headed to Russia, where he trained and also ended up injuring his right knee by choosing to compete in a local event—Ali Aliev tournament.