30-year-old China men's national table tennis team captain, Ma Long, withdrew from the ITTF World Tour Swedish Open due to injury on Thursday night.

After Czech Open which was held during Aug. 23-26, Ma ranked third with Xu Xin and Fan Zhendong surpassing him in the first two places respectively.

Since July, Ma has already withdrawn matches three times – the other two were in Australian Open and Men's World Cup in Paris, due to a reoccurring knee injury. He dropped the men's doubles and singles in the first round of Swedish Open.

After Rio Olympic Games, where he won the men's singles gold medal, Ma started to prepare for the Tokyo 2020. However, his long-term injury has continued to cause issues. In order to achieve the national dream two years later in Japan, he had to do a trade-off.

Ma apologized to his fans on Weibo at first time. He wrote, "I have to say sorry to the friends who waited to watch my appearance.

"I got the injury in the domestic league. Before coming to Sweden, I went to hospital to get pain-killing injections. Attending this event was to attain the required match numbers for the World Tour Grand Finals.

"But the situation is not that ideal… Next, I will train optimistically and I'm looking forward back to match as early as possible," Ma said, hinting he will participate in the Austrian Open on Nov. 8-11.

"I never fear any rival, this time, I won't surrender. Picking up courage and coming back with full energy is the must-pass route for every warrior." He concluded

Liu Guoliang, the head coach of Chinese national table tennis team, who also went to Sweden to conduct the team, commented: "This moment, heart hurts more than leg."

The other Chinese ping-pong talent, Fan Zhendong, withheld the No.1 place in the ITTF World Tour standings for eight months. He smashed compatriot Liu Dingshuo 4-1 in the first round in men's singles. Fan will face Zhou Yu as top-seed Xu will meet Mizutani Jun of Japan in the Round of 16 on Friday.