In what could be a big blow for the prospects of many Indian shuttlers' qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics, no player from the country will feature in the Malaysian Open tournament, scheduled to be held from May 25-30, due to a temporary travel restriction imposed by the Malaysian Government on Indian travellers.

The tournament is one of the last events that contribute to Olympic qualification which ends on June 15.

All of India's top shuttlers, the likes of PV Sindhu, Saina Nehwal, Kidambi Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy, Chirag Shetty, Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy were due to participate in the tournament.

The Sports Ministry, through the Ministry of External Affairs, approached the Malaysian authorities requesting to permit the Indian team to participate, but owing to the rise in Covid 19 cases in India, the Malaysian government informed the Indian High Commission in Malaysia that the team's travel cannot be permitted, at present.

The ban came into effect on April 28, 2021. Only one more qualification tournament for the Tokyo Olympics remains post the Malaysian Open, which is the Singapore Open, scheduled to be held from June 1-6.