When could Keely Hodgkinson return to track after latest injury setback?

The Olympic 800m champion has been sidelined with a hamstring injury so far this season and will not race in Stockholm

Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson will not compete at the Stockholm Diamond League on Sunday after another injury setback.

The 2024 BBC Sports Personality of the Year has been suffering with a hamstring injury since February.

The injury forced her to pull out of her own event, the Keely Klassic, where she was due to attempt to break the 800m indoor world record.

The middle-distance runner suspected her recovery would take up to six weeks and was due to return to the track for the seventh Diamond League event of 2025, her first competitive outdoor appearance of the year. However, this setback only further delays her return.

But what does this mean for the 23-year-old and how will this impact the rest of her season?

Although no official time scale has been placed upon her comeback, there is now serious doubt over whether she will be fit enough to race in several major upcoming events.

Hodgkinson was next due to race in the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon at the start of July, but she will also want to be the start line at the sold out London Diamond League meet two weeks later.

Hodgkinson is a gold-medal favourite in Paris (Martin Rickett/PA) (PA Archive)

The main target for the British star, though, is to race at the World Championships in Tokyo in September, where she will bid to become victorious at this event for the first time.

The Stockholm meet would have seen her face fierce rivals from Paris: silver medalist Tsige Duguma from Ethiopia, who currently sits at the top of the DL standings, and bronze medalist Mary Moraa from Kenya, who currently holds the World Championship title

And Hodgkinson could be lacking the same formal race experience heading into her pursuit to clinch the world title she would desperately love to attach her name to.