England and Team GB hopeful Zac Seddon has revealed he may be forced to miss the Glasgow Commonwealth Games this summer due to a stress fracture in his foot.
The Florida-based athlete, who finished the 2013 season ranked third in the overall standings in the 3000m steeplechase despite still being an under 20, revealed he has been on crutches since Christmas after obtaining the injury towards the end of last season.
Speaking exclusively to VincoSport, he revealed he first became aware of the issue in September after experiencing pain while running but didn’t initially think the injury was serious.
“I noticed my foot was in pain around September when I was running but it always died down after training. However, when I started doing hurdling drills as part of my routine, the pain increased. So when I was back home in the UK at Christmas I decided to get it checked out properly and had an MRI and CT scan which revealed a small stress fracture in my navicular.”
The injury is a bitter blow to Seddon, who is studying Sociology at Florida State University, as he saw this year’s Commonwealth Games as a realistic target, and he may not be fit in time to qualify. He now faces six to eight weeks on crutches, followed by a further month’s slow recovery, meaning he will not have long to run the required time before the Games.
It’s not known what exactly caused the injury but Seddon believes it may have something to do with his training routine in the states.
”I’m pretty sure I got the injury from increasing my training too quickly and not having enough rest in between. It’s a real shame because, even with my bad foot, I seemed to hit really good shape just before Christmas. The worst case scenario is I will miss the Commonwealth Games due to not having a big enough training base. But I’ll definitely be back in training and will be working on my speed and running shorter events. And the break will certainly give my body lots of time to recover ready to start again fresh.”
Zac has been described as the best young athlete to emerge from the UK in the last ten-years after winning the English Schools’ and UK School Games in 2010 before finishing fifth at the following year’s World Youth Championships. 2014 was seen as being his breakthrough year at senior level after his superb performances in the NCAA and the European Junior Championships, where he won the gold medal, in 2013.
The Commonwealth Games are to be held from the 23rd July to the 4th August, with the athletics taking place between the 27th July and the 2nd August at Hampden Park, Glasgow.
