Turnbull won't be able to resume training until early December

Olympic Games hope Gareth Turnbull's winter training has been interrupted by illness and injury.

Turnbull has done virtually no training since competing at the World Championships in August.

He intended to take a month off after the Paris games but a combination of having his tonsils removed and a nagging groin injury means he is not scheduled to resume sessions until early next month.

"The results of an MRI scan on the groin injury came back last week and basically I've been told not to do anything until early December," Turnbull told this website.

"That even includes acqa-jogging in the pool because I'm not supposed to do any kind of twisting or contorting at all.

"At this stage of the game, it's not absolutely disastrous but obviously I won't want to miss out on too much more training with next year in mind".

Turnbull's injury means he has already ruled out competing indoors or in cross country in the new year.

His plan is to once again link up with Mark Carroll in the US after Christmas as he has done in the past two seasons.

I've missed around three weeks of training Paul McKee

Carroll is in training for the London Marathon in April and Turnbull plans to spend around four months working with the Corkman.

Another Olympic hope Paul McKee is also battling against injury which could threatened his hopes of competing in the World Indoor Championships next March.

McKee's outdoor campaign was severely affected by a hamstring injury which he picked up a few weeks after winning a bronze medal at this year's World Indoor Championships.

The 400 metre runner returned last week from a one-week Irish pre-Olympic training camp in Cyprus and it is only in the last few days that he has finally begun to shake off the effects of the hamstring problem.

"I'm getting plenty of massage on it at the moment and I feel fine today after doing a fairly intensive session at the track last night," McKee told the BBC.

"I've missed around three weeks of training and if I were to miss another three weeks then it would put the indoor season in doubt.

"But it seems to be gradually getting better and hopefully it will continue to settle down and allow me to do the training".

2004 will probably be my final season before I pack it in Dermot Donnelly

Meanwhile, Dermot Donnelly has ruled himself out of contention for the European Cross Country Championships next month.

The Annadale Strider is concentrating his winter campaign on earning a place in the long course race at the World Cross Country Championships in March.

"I've upped the mileage again in recent months and I'm doing a bit of gym work which I've never really done before," said Donnelly.

"I'll do a few local races like the Joe Seeley 10K but I'm gearing myself towards running in the Stormont Cross Country race in January and then hopefully aiming towards the World Cross Country.

"Overall, the plan is to really give it a really good go in 2004 as it will probably be my final season before I pack it in.

"If I have a good 2004, I'd probably be happy enough to hang up my competitive spikes at that stage".

Meanwhile, Sonia O'Sullivan has confirmed that she will compete in the European Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh next month.

O'Sullivan won the a 5K road race in Australia last weekend in 15:40 which was adjudged a good performance given the hot conditions at the Queensland venue.