Nicolette Fernandes - At 2006 World Squash Awards where she won Most Improved Player of the Year

LONDON, England, CMC - England-based Guyanese squash star Nicolette Fernandes, sidelined for almost a year with knee trouble, is returning home to undergo a rehabilitation programme.

 
Fernandes, winner of the Women's Most Improved Player prize at the 2006 World Squash Awards in London, has plunged down the world rankings in recent months because of inactivity.

 
Medical specialists in England have been trying to resuscitate her career since she had surgery last year April but her comeback efforts have continually been scuppered by pain in her knee.

 
The injury, characterized by a shifting knee cap, has been a huge setback to the gifted 24-year-old, who attained a personal best No.27 world ranking in May last year.

 
Fernandes, who won the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games gold medal in 2006 and also copped silver at the Pan American Championship that same year, has drifted outside of the top 100 in recent months and was No.126 in the March 2008 ratings released last week.

 
She has been given a rehabilitation training regimen by specialists in England and is expected to arrive home in Guyana later this month to begin the programme.


CMC lw/08