WINSLEY runner Alex Carter has vowed to keep on battling to overcome the injuries that have hampered his career in America.

The 20-year-old former St Laurence School student is on a sports scholarship at Iona University in New York State but is facing another worrying spell on the sidelines after suffering yet another foot injury.

Carter had only just recovered from an operation to his right foot, the legacy of an injury he suffered in the summer of 2014, when problems arose with his left.

He managed just three races in 2016 following a low-key 2015 and while on a break back home in Wiltshire for the Christmas holidays Carter revealed he won’t be back racing any time soon.

“The right foot seems to be okay now but now the left foot has flared up,” said Carter.

“I think I have suffered a stress reaction because I was probably over-compensating when I started running again but I carried on and unfortunately it got worse and worse.

“The foot is in a boot again and now it is a waiting game to see what the problem is. Some of it is possibly my fault as I have not listened to people when I should but it is also bad luck.

“But hopefully the doctors will tell me the injury isn’t as bad as with the right foot, which was a stress fracture and I can start back running again soon.”

Lady Luck certainly hasn’t been on Carter’s side since he went to America in 2014 but he stressed that the university coaches have remained supportive while his own desire to show that the national medals he won as a teenager weren’t a high point of his career remains as strong as ever.

“Over the last three years I have always had something hurting in my body,” added Carter.

“I just need to get to a situation where everything is stable and I can start racing properly again. I certainly haven’t lost my love of the sport or of training but I just need to get back to pain-free running before I can start racing properly.

“I still firmly believe if I stick at it then something good will come. I just want to get back racing again and hopefully put in a few good results for the university team before I leave in 2018.”