Southampton Games star in motorbike shock

6:00am Thursday 7th August 2008

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BLAKE Aldridge has revealed he suffered a potentially career-threatening injury just weeks before the Olympics.

The Southampton-based diver was knocked off his motorbike while on the M25 back on Friday 13 in June.

Ironically, he was heading to pick up a car from his sponsors, which they had got for him so he didn't have to risk riding the bike any longer!

"You couldn't really write the story," he said.

"I cut my elbow down to the bone. But it wasn't really the cut that was the problem, more the way it got infected and the infection spread right up my arm.

"That was really why I couldn't bend my arm because there was so much fluid on my elbow. I couldn't bend or straighten it."

The accident happened a matter of days before the Olympic trials and left Aldridge unfit to dive.

But Aldridge and Daley were spared having to take part in the trials after their only competition for the Great Britain 10m platform synchro place - Waterfield and Leon Taylor - withdrew following Taylor's injury-forced retirement.

"Luckily we didn't have to dive the trial," said Aldridge, the serious look on his face reflecting the seriousness of the situation.

"If Leon and Peter hadn't retired as a synchro pair then God knows? Maybe I wouldn't be going to the Olympic Games right now."

Two-page Olympics special in today's Daily Echo