Ashley McKenzie has had to withdraw from the British Judo World Championships team due to injury.

McKenzie had been due to fight in the -60kg category on Monday 24 August in Astana, Kazakhstan however he has been withdrawn from the team to ensure he can make a full recovery for the rest of the year and to prevent further damage that could impact his long-term ability to qualify for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

On the decision to withdraw from the World Championships Ashley McKenzie said:

“I am disappointed in the outcome of me not competing at Worlds. I trained up to it, I done my best and this is judo and accidents happen. I’ve got to look forward to going on to fight in Paris Grand Slam and the Glasgow Open. Hopefully I get medals at them and my Rio dream continues.”

Performance Director Nigel Donohue said:

“It is with great disappointment that Ashley has had to withdraw from the World Championships through injury, but it is the right decision to safe guard the high possibility of risking a potential long term injury which could rule him out of Rio 2016. Ashley is currently in great form after recently winning last month’s British Open and then following this up with a career best Grand Slam Silver in Russia the following week, but looking at the ‘big picture’, although disappointing in having to withdraw from a World Championships, this will give Ashley the time for the injury to heal in readiness for the Glasgow European Open and Paris Grand Slam in October to continue his journey to Rio.”

You can next see Ashley in action at the Glasgow European Open on October 10, tickets can bought at www.britishjudo.org.uk/glasgow2015 and you can watch the British Judo World Championships team in action on ippon.tv from Tuesday 25 August