FILE PHOTO: Athletics - World Athletics Championships - Men's Long Jump - Final - Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon, U.S. - July 16, 2022 India's Murali Sreeshankar in action during the men's long jump final REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's Asian Games silver medallist Murali Sreeshankar will miss the Paris Olympics with a knee injury sustained in training this week, the long jumper said on Thursday.
Sreeshankar will have surgery after hurting his knee on Tuesday, which ruled him out "of the one single thing I have chased relentlessly all these years," the 25-year-old wrote in an emotional social media post.
"Life writes strange scripts, and sometimes there is courage in accepting it and moving on. That's what I'll do," wrote the Commonwealth Games silver medallist.
Sreeshankar will draw from basketball great Kobe Bryant's competitive "Mamba Mentality" in his bid to return to action.
"My journey to a comeback began the minute I injured my knee," he wrote.
"This road is going to be long, difficult and will take a lot out of me.
"The good thing is I have a lot to give. I will overcome this because that's what Mamba Mentality is all about."
Bryant, who died aged 41 in a January 2020 helicopter crash, wrote a book called "The Mamba Mentality", which he said "simply means trying to be the best version of yourself".
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Ken Ferris)
