By Navneet Singh

New Delhi, Jul 1 (IANS): Leading freestyle wrestler Bajrang Punia, who injured his knee last week during a competition in Russia, would require another week to get back to the mat, an official of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said on Thursday.

"His knee injury is not that serious but still he will not take the risk of getting back to training on the mat. It would take a minimum of a week before he steps on to the mat for training," the WFI official told IANS on Thursday.

The 27-year-old 65kg freestyle wrestler has qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games starting July 23

On June 26, the Haryana wrestler injured his right knee during a semi-final bout of the annual Ali Aliyev Wrestling Competition in the Russian city of Kaspiysk.

"Punia's physio is working on the injured leg and he should be fit within a week and get back to normal training on the mat. Since he has hurt his knee, he is following an upper body exercise routine to keep himself fit," added the WFI official.

Currently based out of Russian city of Vladikavkaz, Punia competed in the Ali Aliyev tournament as a part of his preparation for the Olympics. But he injured his right knee half way through his semi-final match against Russia's Abdulmazhid Kudiev.

After the injury, Punia expressed his inability to continue the fight, and limped off the mat.

"The injury isn't serious. He should be fine within a week," Punia's personal coach Shako Bentinidis had said after the injury.

This month, Punia and his coach had gone for a short training stint to Vladikavkaz to prepare for the July 23-August 8 Olympic Games.

Punia had skipped the Poland Ranking Series held in Warsaw from June 8-13 to practice with top Russian wrestlers as part of his Olympic preparation.