China's Olympic figure skating silver medalists, Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, plan to pull out of the pairs' competition at the upcoming World Championships, citing a stress fracture in Sui's foot.
Th World Championships will take place March 21-25 in Milan, Italy.
According to a medical report issued on Tuesday by the National Institute of Sports Medicine, Sui's stress fracture of the second metatarsal is in her right foot. Medical experts have suggested that she take a break of six to eight weeks, and it could take as long as three months to get fully recoverd.
In January, the pair withdrew from the Four Continents Championships after Sui sustained an abrasion on her left leg. After a short break, they participated in the following month's Winter Olympics in South Korea.
Sui and Han won silver in PyeongChang Winter Olympics after scoring 235.47 points. They were edged out for gold by a mere 0.43 points by Aljona Savchenko and Bruno Massot of Germany.
Canada's Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, the 2015 and 2016 world champions, are also out of the upcoming edition of the event, as they retired after taking bronze in PyeongChang.
