Greg Rutherford "truly gutted" after pulling out of London World Championships due to ankle injury

Greg Rutherford has lost his battle to defend his world long jump title in London next month and withdrawn from the British team after failing to recover from an ankle injury.

Rutherford has been attempting to regain fitness after damaging ankle ligaments while competing in Italy at the start of June, but has not competed since that event and been forced to give up his fight with the World Championships less than a fortnight away.

“In the last few days I have had to accept an unfortunate reality,” he said. “I did everything I could, but a string of injuries at the worst possible time means I will be unable to defend my world title in London.

“With an incredible start to the year in training, and very promising early season form, I have had a difficult series of setbacks as the season progressed.

“Most recently, a badly damaged ankle ligament and a sportsman's hernia, really put paid to my plans.

“The injuries have taken longer to heal than we hoped, and I have been unable to even jump at all in training, let alone compete.

“I am truly gutted. That stadium is such a special place for me. I am so devastated that I won’t be competing in front of the best fans in the world, in the stadium that changed my life.

“But, I’ll definitely be there to support my British team mates and soak up what will be an amazing atmosphere, and an amazing championships.

“My focus will now turn to 2018 and becoming a three time European champion on the trot, something no long jumper has ever done before.”

Rutherford, 30, became only the fifth British athlete – after Daley Thompson, Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards – to complete a ‘grand slam’ of Olympic, world, Commonwealth and European titles when he claimed the world title in Beijing two years ago.

He was unable to retain his Olympic crown in Rio last summer, where he took bronze behind America’s Jeff Henderson.

Now one of the senior members of the British team, he admitted earlier this season that his body is finding it harder to withstand the rigours of professional sport.

“It’s part and parcel of getting older,” he said. “You don't heal quite as fast as you used to and more things are going to go wrong.

“The amount of years I've put so much force through my body, something eventually will go wrong with it. That's life. It just happens.”

British Athletics performance director Neil Black said: “Greg is one of only a few British athletes to complete the ‘grand slam’ of medals, but that won’t make missing London any easier.

“He desperately wanted to defend his world title in front of the home crowd, but unfortunately his injury hasn’t cleared up in time and the hard but sensible decision had to be made to withdraw.”

Double European Indoor 60m champion Richard Kilty has also withdrawn from the 4x100m relay squad after breaking a finger on his changeover hand.

Shara Proctor, who won world silver two years ago, and Olympic finalist Jazmin Sawyers have both been added for the long jump as part of five late additions to the British team.