World and Olympic Champion, Aliya Mustafina, will travel back to Moscow on the 2nd November, ready for surgery on an injured meniscus in her right knee on the 3rd, head coach Valentina Rodionenko said today in an interview with R Sport. Aliya tore the ACL in her left knee in spring 2011 and recovered from surgery to win gold in the London Olympics in 2012.
The injury is not serious and it is expected that recovery will take six to eight weeks, allowing Aliya to begin training for Rio in early January, all being well. 'It's just a strain', said Rodionenko, adding that medical advice suggested it would be better for Aliya to have the surgery than suffer the pain.
Aliya made the decision herself to have the surgery in Russia this time, rather than in Germany. She will make her recovery at Round Lake (the national training centre) and if she is well enough will travel to Israel on the 10th, to participate in the rehabilitation camp with the rest of the national team.
Aliya herself has said that she doesn't consider that missing this World Championships will be detrimental to her Olympic preparation. Valentina added her voice to this, saying, 'Everything will be fine, do not worry'.