Marcon Bezzina has decided to drop out of contention in judo women’s teams event today as she is still struggling with an arm injury suffered during Tuesday’s individual events in Eschen.

Bezzina was hurt in her opening 63kg category fight.

She honoured all her bouts and also beat the girl who won the gold medal in her class.

However, Bezzina was clearly not 100 per cent fit and immediately after the competition she underwent an MRI scan which showed that the Maltese champion had partially ruptured elbow ligaments.

Dr Lucienne Attard, head of the MOC medical team, informed Bezzina of the extent of her injury but it was the judoka herself who decided to quit the GSSE as she was scheduled to partner Joanna Camilleri in today’s competition.

“The doctors were clear in their analysis. The elbow hurts and I would be risking my career if I were to take to the mat here in Liechtenstein this week,” Bezzina said.

“I was advised to rest my arm and avoid competition and that’s what I’ll be doing. The event for teams involved bouts with judokas 15kgs heavier in weight. It would have been a useless risk.

“Now, I will seek to recover fully for the World Championships in August. Pity it had to end this way after so much training and pre-paration for the GSSE.”