Injuries have left Australia facing the real prospect of having no women's artistic gymnastic team at the Olympics for the first time since 1988.
Two-time Commonwealth silver medallist Mary-Anne Monckton suffered a torn ACL at a training camp in Canberra at the weekend, joining superstar Lauren Mitchell in being sidelined from next month's final qualifying opportunity at the Games test event in Rio.
Mitchell attended the camp but was deemed not yet ready to return to competition following major surgery to repair a ruptured ACL last July.
Monckton was named on the six-woman team for the test event before a fall from the bars which ended her Olympic hopes for the year.
To qualify for Rio, the Australians must finish in the top four of eight nations at the test event on April 16-18 after failing to secure a berth with a 14th-place at the world championships last year.
They were dogged by injuries then, and without the experience of Mitchell or Monckton will again be up against it.
But head coach Peggy Liddick remained optimistic.
"The team that's here is the best that we have in Australia and we think they are ready," she said.
"We did a real intense strength and conditioning program with all the girls ... so it's a much more resilient and strong team that we have here than we did last year."
Neither was it yet the end of 24-year-old Mitchell's bid to finish her career at a third Olympics.
So long as the team qualifies, she will get her chance to earn a spot at the national championships in May which will double as selection trials.
"It's a clean slate when we get back from Rio," Liddick said.
While Mitchell wasn't ready for the test event, the coach was pleased with her progress.
"If we had another four or five weeks, she might have snuck her way on the team - she looked really good in the trial," she said.
The team head to Melbourne next week for a final training camp, before flying to the US to contest the Pacific Rim Championships in Washington and then Rio.
Australian team for the test event: Georgia-Rose Brown, Emily Little, Larrissa Miller, Rianna Mizzen, Emma Jane Nedov, Emily Whitehead.
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