Malaysia's Paris Olympic Badminton Men's Singles bronze medallist Lee Zi Jia is back from injury for his first World Tour event of the new year, taking on Chinese Taipei's Chi You-jen in the first round of the Badminton Super 300 tournament in Orleans, France, from 4-9 March.

Li Zijia finally returned from injury and ushered in the first World Tour event of the new year

World No. 7 Lee Zi Jia suffered a ligament injury to his right ankle during the group stage of the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou in mid-December last year and missed the Malaysia Badminton Super 1000, India Badminton Super 750 and Indonesia Badminton Super 500 tournaments in January. After three months of rehabilitation, the 26-year-old finally returned from injury at the European World Tour in March, starting with the Orleans Super 300 and then continuing to compete in the All England Super 1000 from 11 to 16 March.

This is also the first game since Li Zijia changed coaches and cooperated with Coach Yang Jiawei. Li Zijia's team (Team LZJ) was officially announced on December 25 last year that former national player Yang Jiawei replaced Huang Daming as Li Zijia's new coach.

Li Zijia, who won the All England Championships in 2021, is the top seed at the Orleans Badminton Masters and will face world number 30 Qi Youren in the first round, against whom he has won two matches, including a straight game win at the 2017 Orleans Badminton International Challenge. Malaysia's Men's Singles will also feature libero Zhan Jun Wei and rising star He Shouwei, both of whom will start from the qualifiers.

The other men's singles seeds are Chinese Taipei's No.2 seed Lin Junyi, Singapore's former world champion and No.3 seed Loh Kean Yew, France's rising star and No.4 seed Lanier, Japan's No.5 seed Kenta Nishimoto, France's No.6 seed Tomapopov, Hong Kong's No.7 seed Ng Ka-long and No.8 seed Lee Cheuk-yiu.