The Commonwealth Games will be without one of its star attractions after former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell's withdrawal due to a mystery injury.
Jamaica's team boss Dalton Myers has confirmed to AAP the 2006 Commonwealth 100m champion will not race alongside countryman Yohan Blake in the event next month.
Myers says he has not received word on the specifics of the injury but it is understood Powell had pulled up lame at a meet and opted to rest, given the Games' early placement in the racing calendar.
The former world record-holder's gold at Melbourne's Commonwealth Games was his first major international title and one he continues to cherish.
He spoke late last year about his aim to become the first man to break 10 seconds 100 times during the Gold Coast event.
But the 35-year-old has been hampered by injury, not running last June's national championship final due to tendonitis, and reportedly injured his hamstring at a meet in Jamaica last month.
"We've had no official statement from him (to confirm the specific injury) but I know he was aiming to come to the Games, this was something that he was really looking forward to and he had made public statements about that," Meyers told AAP from the squad's Gold Coast training base.
"I know he stopped midway through an event and since then the aim has been to focus on the rest of the season and get that rehabilitation.
"If he turns up it will only be as part of the delegation, not to race."
Powell's absence and recent withdrawal of Canadian Andre De Grasse leaves Powell's training partner Blake, who has already arrived on the Gold Coast, as the man most likely to take the honours.
However, fellow Jamaican Julian Forte also boasts impressive credentials.
He ran the third fastest time of 2017 and is already in the host city with his training squad that include's defending women's 100m and 200m Olympic champion Elaine Thompson.
"I'm sure he would have made the team but the other youngsters are coming up, the Julian Fortes, Yohan Blakes, they'll still put a show on and do really well," Meyers said.
Powell's absence also opens the door for Australian champion Trae Williams, who clocked 10.10 seconds - the fastest time by an Australian in 11 years - earlier this year.
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