World champion hurdler Sally Pearson is managing an untimely achilles injury that has rocked her confidence leading up to the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.
Pearson, the 2012 Olympic champion, revealed on Wednesday her right achilles had forced her to miss several training sessions and compromised her technique two weeks out from her home event.
The 31-year-old Gold Coaster admitted she has had grave doubts about whether she would make it to the start line at Carrara Stadium for the April 12 heats in the 100m hurdles at the Games.
But her spirits were lifted with an impressive and trouble-free 4x100m lead-off relay run at the final Games warm-up meet in Brisbane on Wednesday night.
Pearson was actually made to run closer to 150m after a late recall from a false start in the race, which the England team won in 43.20 seconds, 0.56sec ahead of Australia.
Her split, into a headwind around the bend at the State Athletics Facility, gave her cause for relief, particularly as it was her fastest since the Daegu 2011 world championships in South Korea.
"I'm a pure sprinter and running more than 100m is quite difficult for me," she said.
"But it's the fastest time I've run since Daegu so I'm very, very excited.
"I'm going to do everything I possibly can from now until the Commonwealth Games. It's looking more and more that racing is on the cards."
But Pearson admitted she would have to be on her "A-game" to claim a third straight Commonwealth 100m hurdles title.
She said she'd been carrying the injury through the season and it got worse two months ago, forcing her to forgo technical work due to the intense pain on her toes.
"I think I'll be right to race. It's just whether my confidence is right to race," she said.
"Missing a lot of technique work does take it's toll."
After three years blighted by serious wrist, hamstring and achilles injuries, Pearson made a triumphant return to the global stage in London last August when she won a second world title.
She cruised to victory at the Games trials on the Gold Coast last month before being run out in the semis of the 60m hurdles at the world indoor championships in Birmingham.
"I was pretty down a few weeks ago but the last week I've been training well. The pain's there but it's manageable," she said.
Australian head coach Craig Hilliard said Pearson had dealt with the problem and managed with it in the past.
"She's missed a few training sessions and some of the sessions she has done haven't been quite where she wanted them to be," he told AAP.
"As we know, she's a perfectionist.
"It's crappy timing for her but she'll work her way through it."
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