A KNEE injury has wrecked Olympic medallist Simon Archer's individual world championship hopes.

The Worcester badminton ace limped out of the world team championships in a surprise opening appearance in the Sudirman Cup in Seville.

Archer had not been expected to play until the crunch match with Sweden due to his knee problems.

He now faces six months out of the game plus surgery after falling on court during a mixed doubles match.

He will miss next week's individual championships in southern Spain.

Archer, who captured silver and bronze medals in the last world championships, was this morning trying to book a flight back to the United Kingdom to see a specialist.

"It is disappointing," said a deflated Archer.

"I think I have snapped a tendon in my knee and could be out for up to six months.

"It just buckled under me and it felt like I had dislocated it.

"The knee has been a problem for about two years."

Archer has pencilled in a return at next April's European championships or possibly the national championships in February.

The Sydney games mixed doubles bronze medal winner has been plagued by knee problems.

Before the championships, in which he was seeded 15th in both the men's doubles with Nathan Robertson and the mixed doubles with Gail Emms, he admitted his knee could collapse at any time.

He had not played since the Swiss Open in a bid to rest his knee.

His withdrawal is a blow to British badminton because a poor performance from the national team could affect lottery funding. The Badminton Association gives the teams targets and if those are not met the money goes down.

England suffered their second defeat in a row when they lost to Indonesia.