In an interview with Sovietski Sport today, Valentina Rodionenko confirmed that the injured Aliya Mustafina is acting on her own volition in participating in the coming week's European Championships. 'Her injury is painful, but not fatal', said the head coach, 'Aliya is very clever, she is trying very hard.'
Directly after Sofia, Aliya will travel to Munich, to the same clinic where she, Komova, Afanasyeva and Grishina have been treated, for an assessment of her ankle injury. The ankle is very painful and at the moment Aliya can't tumble or dismount at all, and can only vault into a pit. In an earlier interview Mustafina has explained that she is saving her ankle for competition, and Andrei Rodionenko has said her participation is subject to the 'state of her feet'.
There are also some brief details of the other injured gymnasts, including Komova, whose injury record Sovietski Sport questioned, suggesting that her recurrent injuries might make her unlikely to make the Rio Olympics. Viktoria slipped on some ice at a bus stop and injured her ankle in the spring, says Valentina here (elsewhere it is said that Viktoria injured herself in training, but that might have been another injury ...). The operation in Germany was to strengthen her ankle ligaments.
Afanasyeva has a long standing injury that now needs time to heal, following the operation in Germany. It is important that she is back at full strength in time for the Rio Olympics as she contributes on floor and vault, where she is Russia's only gymnast with an Amanar.
Grishina's case is more difficult. Thankfully, she hasn't a complete tear of the ACL as Mustafina had. Nevertheless, she still hadn't recovered all her Olympic difficulty prior to the injury.