Aliya Mustafina, a former World all-around champion and challenger to Simone Biles, will miss next month’s World Gymnastics Championships primarily due to a back injury, according to Russian reports quoting Mustafina and the Russian team coach.
Mustafina, 20, won all-around medals at the 2010 World Championships (gold), 2012 Olympics (bronze) and 2013 World Championships (bronze) and was fourth in 2014 while dealing with health problems.
Mustafina has been a stalwart in the Russian program. With her, the Russian team took silver behind the U.S. at the 2012 Olympics and bronze at the 2014 World Championships.