Jessica Ennis to miss world trials in home town after foot injury

Jessica Ennis, the world heptathlon champion, will not compete at the World Trials in Sheffield this weekend after straining a ligament in her right foot. Having had an impressive start to her indoor season this year – setting eight new personal bests in a month – the 24-year-old's withdrawal is being viewed as a precautionary measure, to ensure optimum fitness at the World Indoor Championships in Doha next month. "After competing in Glasgow last week and a pretty intense training week, I felt a slight niggle in my foot – like a muscle knot," said Ennis. "An MRI scan on Monday night has shown a slight ligament strain, and as a precautionary measure under the advice of the UKA doctor, Paul Dijkstra, I am going to have to rest it in the short term to ensure the quickest recovery. This means me missing the trials this weekend in front of my home crowd – I am truly devastated." After a stunning performance at the Glasgow Grand Prix 10 days ago, where she beat the world indoor champion, Lolo Jones, over 60m hurdles and set a new British record in the event, her coach, Toni Minichiello, had warned of taking precautions against injury at this stage of the season. It was this time of year in 2008 when damage was done to her right ankle that pre-empted the career threatening injury that ruled her out of competing at the Beijing Olympic Games. "After the disappointment of 2008 I am always going to err on the side of caution and am going to stick to low-impact training for a couple of weeks," said Ennis. "My coach, believes I am in the shape of my life, and that reducing high impact training now will not affect my preparations for Doha." Minichiello added: "We are being cautious, this is a slight strain of a ligament in her foot and we will be watching it closely over the next couple of weeks, but at this stage Jessica has every intention of taking part in the Aviva Grand Prix in Birmingham as part of her preparation for the World Indoors in Doha."