A DISTRAUGHT CIARA Mageean was forced to pull out of the women’s 1500m at the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade due to injury.
She looked to be in pain during the race, and limped off the track prematurely.
The Irish star withdrew with less than two laps to run, revealing afterwards that the pain in her Achilles tendon was too much.
Understandably frustrated with her performance, she struggled to hold back her tears during the post-race interview.
“Going around there I just felt like I was losing power from my right achilles and I just wanted to get off and get back to my physios,” she told RTE Sport.
“I don’t have any answers.
“Somethings uncomfortable. Training’s been going so well, and I’m like what’s wrong, something’s up. I don’t know why my foot is so sore right now. I usually have a pretty good pain threshold so I don’t know.
“I don’t want to just be there making up the numbers. I’m so frustrated right now, I’m just frustrated in my head, I don’t even know what’s up.”
“I just hope this won’t set me back.”
When asked on the positives of her year so far, she struggled to answer: “I can’t think of them right now, I just want to get down and into the changing room and back to my physio.
“I’m very sorry for that performance there today.”
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