Yu Mengyu, the 26th seed at the pandemic-delayed Games in the Japanese capital, required prolonged treatment towards the end of her 6-11, 8-11, 7-11, 6-11 defeat to China’s top-seeded Chen Meng.

China-born Yu, who reached the Olympic quarterfinals at Rio 2016, will now somehow try and compete with Japanese star Mima Ito for bronze later today.

The 31-year-old Yu has long suffered injury problems, notably to her back and shoulder, and in March was pictured being escorted in a wheelchair for her flight home from a tournament in Doha after the problem flared again, the local Straits Times said.

Following defeat to Chen, Yu said that she had a problem with her left thigh and the issue was linked to her back again.

Yu, who has talked previously of retiring after Tokyo, said that the physio came on to “give me some medical treatment, see if I can persevere and complete this match”.

Dissolving into tears, Yu added: “Because as a professional athlete, concluding a match is very important.

“For me to stand in this Olympic arena is already very difficult so I really didn’t want to easily give up on this match because of injury.”