TOP of the world in a year and a month is the daunting target facing Jessica Ennis.
It's a mega ask.
The 22-year-old track and field wonder-woman from Sheffield can't walk without crutches right now.
Still, the 2009 World Athletics championships in Berlin remain her goal after her Beijing Olympics dream painfully crumbled through injury a month ago.
Ennis is back in business. Despite her stress fractured foot being encased in a protective boot and unable to bear her weight, she's working out again as best as she can at Sheffield's EIS.
"I'm OK, it's a bit of a rubbish time right now. I'm just getting on with rehab and making sure that I do everything I can to help it heal as quick as possible. It's hard because I'm so impatient and want everything to move along quickly. It's really difficult for me to sit back and wait for everything to get back to normal," she explained.
"All I can do at the moment is work on my upper body. I need to keep my weight off the foot, so I'm not doing anything from the knee down. I'm hoping that in a week or so I can get in the pool and as I get back walking I can start jogging.
"I'm hoping that it will be weight bearing in August."
By then the Olympic heptathlon in China will be playing out with Ennis, a genuine GB medal hope before injury struck, stuck at home in Sheffield.
"I think I want to follow the Olympic heptathlon, I want to see how it pans out on the TV but at the same time it's going to be really difficult to watch it, knowing I could have been there," she added.
"When I first found out about the injury that was the worst time, It was awful as I realised that I wasn't going to the Olympic Games. Those first few days were horrible. Now it comes in waves, I feel OK and positive about things and then the next day I feel down again and so disappointed that I'm not going to be there."
And the source of injury remains a mystery. Ennis who was fourth in the World Championships in Osaka last year broke down competing at the annual heptathlon meet in Austria at Gotzis in June.
"I'm not sure if it's something that happened in the lead up in training or if it happened in Gotzis when I competed there. It's hard to say right now but after the 200m in Gotzis it just crumbled," Ennis recalled.
"Training had been going really well, the indoor season went well, I felt in really, really good shape, really positive about the season. I thought my performances in Gotzis were OK but because I had this niggling pain I felt that I couldn't give everything."
The healing process has begun and Ennis will see her doctors in week's time. "We've got another scan due on July 15, then we'll really find out where we are," coach Toni Minichiello said.
"It's frustrating for Jess because there's a lot of work we can't do. After we see the specialist on July 15-16 we can start going to the pool."
She's aiming to be back in full training by October, competing at the European Indoor Championships in Torino in March before the World Championships in Germany next summer.
Minichiello continued: "Beijing were the Olympic championships she wanted to go to to have the Olympic experience and see how well she could get on. That changed rapidly after the last World Championships.
There was more of an expectation because she did so well in the world champs. The target was always to go to Berlin, do well and really vie for a medal, which we will still be able to do.
"Time is still on her side"
Click on the green Play icon above to see the interviewWhat do you think? Post your comments below. READ MORE Football headlinesMore BladesMore OwlsMore SpireitesMore RoversMore RedsMore MillersMore Ice HockeyMore rugby leagueMore rugby unionMore boxingSports columnistsAll sport categoriesThe full article contains 703 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
