He had just recovered from a 2–0 set deficit in the EC semi-final against the Slovenian Darko Jorgic when the accident happened.
At 5-5 in the fifth set, Karlsson tried an advanced shot but hit the table with full force instead of the ball and then the blood started to flow.
After a while of treatment, Karlsson tried to continue but realized fairly immediately that there was no point in even trying to continue as he could barely hold his ping-pong rack.
- I have never hit the table so hard, it was stupid to do it in an EC semi-final when it is 2-2 and five equal.
The match was so even, it really weighed and it feels sad when it turned out like this, I'm in such shape, it would have felt better to lose 4-2 than to go out like this.
It still feels a bit heavy, says the 31-year-old to SVT Sport.
"Got a good diagnosis"
One consolation in all the grief is that the damage is not as serious as was first speculated.
- We received a good diagnosis at the hospital.
It's a flesh wound and what stuck out of the hand was a mixture of fat and flesh.
I've never seen anything like this before and I was very worried that it might be some bone or something because it looked kind of hard, but I guess you're not made of gorse on the inside, it looked scarier than it might have been so it was nice.
Doctors compared it to a stab wound.
For how long will you be gone?
- It depends on how deep the wound is, it was hard to say, but it should be about one to three weeks, so it was a fairly affordable diagnosis anyway.
I thought it would be worse, so you could say I was lucky.
A message which means that there should be no problems at all to get to the start of the WC, which begins in Chinese Chengdu in six weeks.
- It has felt good for a long time now, ever since the Olympics it has gone relatively well, so it's just a matter of continuing on the beaten path, says Karlsson.