Injured Rice to delay departure for Pan Pacs

小臭贝

SYDNEY (AP) - Triple Olympic gold medalist Stephanie Rice will delay her departure to the United States for the Pan Pacific championships to take more time to recover from a shoulder injury.

Rice had been set to fly to the U.S. with the 59-member Australian team on Tuesday, but she will remain behind in Brisbane to have treatment on her shoulder, which has been bothering her since March.

Rice will arrive in California on Sunday, two days before the Pan Pacific meet begins in Irvine, California, missing Australia's pre-meet camp in San Diego.

"This will give me the chance to have a few more physio sessions on the shoulder before flying out to the U.S, which will hopefully aid my preparations for the Pan Pacs, as well as the Commonwealth Games," Rice said in a statement.

Rice is entered in the 50- and 100-meter freestyle, 50 backstroke and 50 butterfly in a shortened program at the Pan Pacs, with the shoulder pain forcing her to miss her favored medley events.

Rice said she's had painkilling injections and is considering surgery after the Commonwealth Games, which will be held in New Delhi, India in October, so she can focus on her program for the 2012 Olympics in London.

"It's definitely something I've considered and I've looked down that path because it's been frustrating and I don't want to have to deal with this for the next two years leading into 2012," Rice told Australian media. "I want everything to be on track for that.

"I've looked at it and had a few MRIs ... but I haven't made a yes or no decision on that yet because I'm just kind of seeing how it goes."

Rice said she didn't know the cause of the injury, which she has felt since the Beijing Olympics.

"I don't know what triggered it but it flared up again and I really haven't been able to shake it off, it's been constant and I've had an injection seven times now," Rice was quoted as saying by the Australian Associated Press. "I've been told I'm not allowed to have any more injections in it so I guess that's a little bit of a worry and it's frustrating for me to not know why it's so bad and what I've got to do to get rid of it."

Rice said she'd never considered entirely skipping the Pan Pacs or the Commonwealth Games.

"It would be extremely disappointing to miss those competitions, but the focus has definitely changed a lot this year," Rice said. "The past month I've had to refocus my goals and sort of take the focus off Pan Pacs and gear up a bit better for Comm Games."

Two-time Olympian Patrick Murphy has withdrawn from the Australian team for the Pan Pacs because of a respiratory virus.