ASHLEY Swain's Olympic dream is in danger of being shattered by an untimely injury.

The 23-year-old Southampton pole vaulter soared to equal second on the UK all-time indoor list during the winter by clearing 5.50 metres - just 15 centimetres shy of the qualification height for Athens.

He was jumping so well that he had harboured outside hopes of Olympic selection.

But that was until disaster struck when he hurt his back while competing for Loughborough at the British Universities (BUSA) Championships in early May.

Having already been sidelined for four and half weeks, Swain fears it will be another month before he is ready to vault again, leaving precious little time to prepare for the Olympic trials in Manchester on July 10/11.

Swain recalled: "I was jumping off a short approach, nothing too strenuous, when my back started giving me problems.

"It got worse and worse and the next morning I couldn't get out of bed. The scans showed I've got a protruding disc.

"I'm getting lots of physio and exercise at Loughborough and had a course of epidural injections to take the inflammation down. Hopefully the disc will move back into place.

"It would have been a lot worse if it had been a complete slipped disc, but I don't think this summer's Olympics is a realistic aim for me now.

"This is the longest injury I've ever had at such an important stage of the season and it's too late to rebuild everything I've lost."

Swain, a former Mountbatten schoolboy and Peter Symonds College student from Rownhams, began scaling the heights as a member of Team Solent club where his mum, Terese, is men's team manager.

A graduate in business and finance at Staffordshire University, he is now taking a masters degree in marketing and management in the elite sporting environment of Loughborough, where he is coached by Steve Rippon.

The one-time Saints schoolboy footballer admitted: "There's a very good support network at Loughborough. There are doctors around and I get physio at least three times a week.

"It can be hard to motivate yourself sometimes when all the other guys around you are training, but I'd prefer to be with them than doing it all on my own. I felt I had an outside chance of going to Athens if I could reproduce my winter form outdoors and jump some big heights.

"It's disappointing, but it's one of those things. I have to deal with it.

"Hopefully I'll be doing some decent heights by the end of the season which I can use as a base for next year."