HUCKNALL hurdler Andy Turner has battled Achilles pain before and plans to beat it again.

After returning from his training camp in America last month, it has flared up again.

He went for scans eight days ago and is confident the medical staff can get to the bottom of the problem so he can resume full training soon.

But the 31-year-old former Notts AC star was brutally honest when he came to the pain it causes him – and how he will overcome it.

"When you live to train and want to train, but your body is saying no, it is a lot to take," he told the Post.

"It is not actually the Achilles, that is where the pain comes from. It is the tendons under your foot that get jammed and the injections I had last year – I had cortisone in the front of my foot – worked. It took the pain away. But I had one last Friday and it did nothing.

"Now they have scanned it twice and injected into the exact point of the problem, rather than relying on the liquid to spread out so hopefully that will sort it.

"The doctors initially said 'take two weeks off, we will do rehab and take these pills to get the inflammation down and then rub this cream in'. I was like I am 31, it is the biggest year of my life and I have not got time to be doing that.

"I am in good shape and the sessions I have been able to do have shown that. But when this flares up, I cannot run on my toes so I am smashing hurdles but I would rather it be now than later in the year, so I can get it sorted.

"I walk fine but the moment I start jogging, even a jog at walking pace, it hurts. When I put my spikes on, it feels like every step my Achilles is going to rip off the bone.

"If I had to run tomorrow at the Olympics I would run. I would take a load of painkillers and do the race. It is not the competition that is the hard part. It is the training during the week.

"That is where you iron out all your problems, get everything right. I am just relying on the competitions to get everything right because I cannot train.

"You cannot do that and I am missing out on practicing my technique throughout the week. I am running raw almost. I need to go to the track knowing my body is all right, that I am going run.

"Hopefully, these injections will sort that like last year, allowing me to get back to training and get ready for London."