Eliza McCartney concedes she's unsure over her involvement in this year's Tokyo Olympics, battling another frustrating injury.
After bursting onto the scene with a bronze medal in the pole vault at the Rio de Janeiro games in 2016, McCartney's recent years have been dogged by numerous injuries.
McCartney's woes have been compounded with another Achilles tendon injury, picked up when competing in the Auckland athletics meet two weeks ago - the first time she'd competed at any level in two years.
The 24-year-old is now conceding that while she remains hopeful of another Olympic tilt, Tokyo could be a bridge too far.
"At the moment, I can't base it off anything," McCartney tells Newshub. "I really don't know what's going to happen.
"If things from here go really smoothly, there's a really good chance that I'll be able to qualify later in the year and be able to go.
"But I just don't know. I have to be prepared for both situations.
McCartney also spoke about her decision to withdraw from this week's national athletics championships in Hawke's Bay.
"It was more following the competition two weeks ago. Unfortunately I was a bit rocky afterwards.
"Particularly this week has just not gone to plan. It wasn't a good idea to jump, which was a pretty hard decision and we made it very last minute. But really, I've got to think longer term.
"We don't really understand what's fully going on. But for all intents and purposes it's an Achilles tendinopathy. The Achilles is really struggling adapting to running and vaulting again.
"It's just a very, very slow process. We're just having to work quite carefully.
"It hasn't been a smooth run, but I am slowly going up the trajectory back to where we need to be. It's just slow - which requires a lot of patience and decisions like this."
McCartney is racing to be fit for the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled to begin on July 23.
