Star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra is focusing on rehabilitation of his back injury he had suffered just before the World Championships last September and has not yet decided when and where to start the season, the Athletics Federation of India (AFI) said on Saturday.

Chopra competed in the World Championships in Tokyo in September 2025 with a back injury and he finished a lowly eighth with a best throw of 84.03m, a far cry from the season and personal best of 90.23m in May.

“He is taking a break and recovering from his injuries. The focus is on rehabilitation, I think that is the most important thing, not the opener,” AFI spokesperson Adille Sumariwalla said when asked about Chopra’s likely opening event of the season.

“Hats off to him that he took part in the world championships. I have seen his injury, the swelling, and he still took part. We told him don’t do it. He said ‘no sir, I will try’. He never said a word like ‘I couldn’t throw because of my injury’,” Sumariwalla said while addressing a press conference here.

Lauding the attitude of Chopra, a two-time Olympic medallist and world championships title winner, former AFI president Sumariwalla said, “There is only one Neeraj Chopra. I have seen people who have not done a thousandth of the performance of Neeraj Chopra talk so much that they want this, they want that. But Neeraj doesn’t say anything. Hats off to him.”

Last year, Chopra began the season in April in a low-key event in South Africa before the high-stake Diamond League competition in May in Doha, where he breached the 90m mark. Recently, Chopra had shared pictures of the wedding reception he had thrown in his home state on his social media accounts. He had married former tennis player Himani Mor in a private ceremony early in 2025.

In the latest registered testing pool for dope testing released by the Athletics Integrity Unit set up by the World Athletics, Chopra and another javelin thrower, Sachin Yadav, were the only Indians to be in the list.

Asked if more Indians could be in the list moving forward, Sumariwalla said, “AIU is an independent body. They don’t report to World Athletics, nor to anyone. So, we don’t know what their annual plan is. “Normally, when it comes to Olympics and World Championships, testing will increase. Those they know who are going to qualify for the Ultimate Championships In Budapest later this year, the AIU will definitely be tracking those people. AIU has seen Neeraj and Sachin as the only two people who could be in the Ultimate Championships from India at the moment.”

Yadav had outperformed Chopra, finishing a creditable fourth with a best throw of 86.27m in the 2025 Tokyo World Championships.

On Saturday, the AFI also released the qualifying standards for the Asian Games in Japan later this year. An athlete will have to mandatorily take part in state meets or two events organised by the AFI to be considered for selection, unless he or she gets permission to skip an event.

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