Carroll out for summer season

Carroll planned to run the Boston Marathon earlier this month

Irish athlete Mark Carroll will miss the entire summer track season because of injury.

The Corkman picked up the leg injury while training for the Boston Marathon.

He had hoped to regain fitness in time to run either the 5000m or the 10,000m at the World Championships in Paris but has now had to admit defeat.

Initially, the injury appeared to be comparatively minor.

"I had an MRI scan six weeks ago and it came back negative," he said.

"But when I went back training two weeks ago it was obvious there was so much pain there had to be something seriously wrong".

The full extent of the problem was revealed after a further scan at the National Training Centre in Limerick.

New York debut

"Basically, a ligament had torn away from the bone and taken a piece of bone with it.

"I don't know why the other scan did not pick it up but it was very difficult to diagnose".

Carroll still hopes to run a marathon later this year.

He ran a solid 2:10.54 when placing sixth on his debut in New York last November.

Meanwhile, world record holder Gillian O'Sullivan will lead a three-strong Irish team in Thursday's IAAF Grand Prix meeting in Italy.

Following her demolition of a star-studded field in Mexico last month she will go to the line as one of the favourites.

She will be joined at the San Giovanni meeting by Olive Loughnane and Robert Heffernan.