NATHAN Douglas feared his world had ended when a freak training accident led to a double ankle ligament rupture during training in Italy.

But the 28-year-old Oxford City triple jumper says the injury has strengthened his resolve to return better than ever, despite now being ruled out for the whole summer.

Douglas re-lived the moment a plyometric box – used to aid his training – collapsed underneath him, on the final day of a training camp last month.

He said: “It was a complete accident. We were doing some drills on boxes about 30cm high.

“It was a sturdy thing that couldn’t even be lifted by one person.

“The whole training group had been using these boxes for three weeks with no problems.

“I was doing a hopping drill and as I landed, I felt my left ankle roll over.

“I heard a massive crack and although I didn’t initially feel any pain, I thought I’d broken it.

“I went back to look at the box, noticed it had cracked, so that was obviously the noise I’d heard.

“By this time though, my ankle had started swelling up massively. The medical team were with me in seconds and I hopped over to the medical room where the X-ray confirmed there was no break.”

But then it was a case of waiting and seeing the extent of the damage.

“Flying back home wasn’t the most pleasant of flights,” he said.

“The ankle was already massively swollen, and the flight made it even worse.

“I had an MRI scan a few days later, and when the specialist told me it was two ruptures, it was a bombshell.

“You almost think the world has ended. I allowed myself to be like that for a few days. I didn’t cry, but it came close to feeling like that.”

Douglas’s career has been blighted by injury setbacks, but he had been showing signs of returning to his best.

“People had been saying really nice things about me this year, and I really felt I was getting somewhere,” he said.

“But this wasn’t a case of my body breaking down again, but a freak accident.”

Now on crutches, with the prospect of a complete summer off, Douglas has vowed to bounce back again.

He added: “I will have to have another scan in the next week or so.

“There are two options. One is wait for the ligaments to fuse back together and see how well it heals, and the other is an operation.

“For sure it has made me more determined than ever to come back from this.

“But as frustrating as it is, I’m going to take what few positives I can out of this.

“Now I’m totally focused on getting fit to be back in training in September or October and prepare for the indoor season and 2012.”