Paul Green's hopes of winning an Olympic taekwondo medal for Britain ended after he was beaten in the under-58kg quarter-finals.
The 27-year-old, European champion in 2003, beat Indonesian Satriyo Rahadhani in the opening round but then lost 4-2 to Quoc Hyuan Nguyen of Vietnam.
Green would still have had a chance of winning a bronze medal via repechage if Nguyen had won his next bout.
But he was crushed 8-0 by Mexico's Oscar Francisco Salazar Blanco.
Green revealed afterwards that he had been severely hampered by a long-standing
groin tear which had required an anaesthetic injection at the start of the day.
"I felt it go in the first round. I felt a lump in my stomach but I just had to carry on," he
"I did it about eight weeks ago and I thought it was over then. But I wasn't going to give
"I've had rubbish preparation but I thought I'd come here and give it my best shot.
"I'm a bit of a madman with training so it's affected me a lot. I've not been able to do
my normal regime and I've been having physio with the English Institute of Sport twice a
"I beat that guy [Nguyen] in the Olympic qualifiers when I was fit," he added.
"It's very disappointing. It was my dream to medal at the Olympics and I could
definitely have got a silver, but that's life."