HIGHJUMP star Tom Gale says he had to make the ‘mature decision’ after an ankle problem brought the teenager’s season to an end.

Gale, who is fresh from a fourth-place finish at the British Championships, says the injury first occurred roughly six weeks ago and since then, there have been no signs of improvement.

After recording a height of 2.17m on Sunday, July 1, Gale was nine centimetres short of the automatic qualification height, which is 2.26m.

The youngster underwent tests to get to the root of the problem and after an MRI scan came back inconclusive, the 19-year-old took the decision to end his season with the aim of being fit for the winter.

“The ankle isn’t great. I had an MRI and an ultrasound and they couldn’t find any problems or anything particularly serious,” said Gale.

“There is still a problem there, it’s good to know there is nothing serious there but at the same time its frustrating to not know what the problem is.

“It is hurting, I first felt some discomfort in it about six weeks ago and since then, it has just built up through the competitions.

“I’m at the point now where I can’t keep ignoring it, I think it’s time to be a bit more mature about it and take a step back.

“It’s not like I’m at the end of my career and this is my last opportunity. It’s my first opportunity so it’s a case of not being an idiot and pushing it when I don’t need to.”

After enjoying such a breakthrough year last year, which saw him record a new personal best of 2.30m as an 18-year-old.

However, while the youngster says it is great to have achieved so much in such a short space of time, the former John of Gaunt pupil claims he is striving for consistency more than anything now.

The ankle injury is something he would not like to see injury become a regular occurrence if it can be avoided.

“At this point I'm focusing on being more consistent and managing injuries as well as I can,” he added.

“I had a great year last year and I've shown a lot of people that I am very capable of performing well in the future.

“So, at the moment I just need to keep my mind away from chasing qualifying standards and more on staying healthy.

“It’s very frustrating because I felt I was heading in the right direction. All the technical points had started to come together really well.

“I’m feeling fresh. I was confident of qualifying for the Europeans, I might not have gone because of how good everyone is this year, but it would have been fantastic to qualify.

“My plans now are to rehab the hell out of this ankle and get my head into the right place for the winter, then start the winter training block.”