Roxana Popa, the 18-year-old from Spain who made a huge splash onto the scene in the first two years this quad, has injured her meniscus and will be unable to contend for a spot at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this summer.

After injuring her knee in training for the Mexican Open in 2014, Popa underwent a lengthy recovery process for a complete rupture of her ACL and meniscus, and finally made it back to competition in time for last year’s world championships. She was only able to contribute on bars in Glasgow and suffered an unfortunate fall in qualifications after looking great in training and at the Novara Cup a month earlier, but seemed to be on the right track in her all-around comeback early this year, earning one of Spain’s two spots at next month’s test event.

But a bad landing on her switch to back tuck on beam caused her to re-injure her right knee, causing another meniscus rupture that will mean the test event – and therefore the Olympic Games – is no longer an option.

Popa posted a video of the injury on Instagram along with a caption in which she says goodbye to Rio 2016.

“Sometimes things don’t go as we want or as we deserve,” Popa wrote to fans. “I’ll give you all an explanation soon. Thank you for all of your support and for being there when I didn’t deserve it.”

The Spanish federation confirmed Popa’s knee injury on Monday. Whether or not she will continue to compete in the next quad is unclear, as she is going to take some time for her emotional health after this devastating blow happened with her shot to go to Rio just weeks away.

The Spanish women finished 17th at last year’s world championships, missing out on a team spot at the test event by three points but earning spots for two individual competitors.Popa’s replacement for the test event has not yet been named, though Claudia Colom and Cintia Rodriguez have both been competing regularly at the Italian Serie A meets and should be in contention, as should Nora Fernandez. Ana Perez is currently the nominative selection for Spain’s second spot.

We wish Popa the best of luck in her recovery and hope she is able to someday find peace with this horrible and unfortunate situation.

Article by Lauren Hopkins