British bobsleigh team leader Gary Anderson has revealed that he was very upset to learn of Craig Pickering's forced withdrawal from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Former 100m and 200m sprinter Pickering will not be competing in Russia after suffering a slipped disc in his back at a training camp in Germany.
A similar injury ruled the 28-year-old out of the London 2012 Games and Anderson, who is considering calling up a replacement, has admitted that this second setback is hard luck on Pickering, but has commended his professionalism and camaraderie under such difficult circumstances.
"This is a big blow and I am personally devastated for Craig, I spoke with him just after we heard from the doctors and he was clearly very upset, he had worked so hard to get to the point of selection for Sochi," an Anderson statement read.
"Craig is a very professional athlete and his concern for the team illustrated that, we had Craig sent back to the UK from our preparation camp in Germany to confirm the original diagnosis but it was pretty clear from the outset that this was going to be tough for him.
"Since we scouted Craig into our programme he has been a model athlete, bringing with him a large amount of big competition experience and that has helped both GBR 1 and GBR 2 throughout the qualification process for these games.
"We will now consider the options open to us and the coaches will sit down over the next 24 hours and evaluate the next move and selection, both for the two-man and four-man competitions. We are fortunate that we have fantastic squad, which has strength and depth, so we know that whoever replaces Craig will put in a credible performance for Team GB."
Pickering returned to the UK earlier this week after sustaining a L3-4 acute disc prolapse.
