The Open has just begun. Throughout the competitive season, there are typically athletes who withdraw, usually due to some kind of injury. In the case of Jonne Koski, though, the Open isn’t happening — period. The four-time CrossFit Games competitor announced on his Instagram page that due to nagging knee problems and a lengthy recovery process, the Open is a no-go this year — but he looks forward to 2019.

Unfortunately I’m not taking part in this years @crossfitgames season and I won’t be doing the Open for the first time in 5 years. ••• For the past 2 years I was trying to get my knee better by putting a lot of extra effort on warm ups,recovery,rehab and changing the movement patterns. Unfortunately the problems wouldn’t go away and even if I was able to work around the issue most of the time and maintain decent strength levels I felt that I wasn’t able to get better and reach the level that I wanted to and it frustrated me. Last year after the games I had 2 knee surgeries to remove nagging scar tissue that had built up from previous injuries. MRI also showed that I had a tear in my vastus lateralis tendon which has made the recovery a bit slower but has healed well by now. I was hoping that I would be able to compete the 2018 season but my recovery is still in progress and I needed to allow myself more time to heal fully before competing again. Sucks hard to be on the sidelines but I have put my goals to 2019 and started training already. I’m confident that it will be my best year so far! Good luck to everyone competing in the #crossfitgamesopen2018 ?? See you next year! @roguefitness @niketraining @redbullsuomi @foodspring_athletics #hungryfor2019 ! ?@jp_kaukonen

A post shared by Jonne Koski (@jonnekoski) on Feb 27, 2018 at 4:57am PST

Way to stay positive, Jonne! We wish you good health.

Main image: Jonne Koski/Instagram