Broken foot won't stop Joe Fraser

The 23-year-old, who battled through the pain to help England retain their Commonwealth Games team title on Friday, returns to action today in the pommel horse and rings finals, with the parallel and horizontal bars to follow tomorrow.

Despite fracturing his foot in a freak training accident a fortnight ago, there remains every chance the former Sandwell Academy student could leave the Games as Team England’s most decorated athlete.

Fraser said: “I will be fine. I am managing myself as best I can with strapping, doing everything I can to perform my routines.

“I don’t see why (I can’t win five medals). I am just going to take it one day at a time. I am not focusing on medals, to be honest. They will come from good routines. If I focus on the routines, we will see what happens.”

Fraser, who underwent shoulder surgery late last year and then an appendectomy in June, explained how he suffered his latest injury by accidentally kicking a bar on a dismount during a training routine.

But the Edgbaston resident, who revealed his mother walked to the Utilita Arena to watch him on Friday night, claimed it would have taken a far more serious ailment for him not to compete in his hometown.

He said: “The opportunity to do a major competition in my home town, it would have taken a lot for me not to be here.

“I am here. I’m going to do everything I can. There have been numerous times when I thought this was not meant to be.

“But the thought of performing in front of a home crowd made me want to achieve things. It’s definitely up there with the toughest challenges of my career.

“The experience (on Friday) was everything and more. I didn’t expect the crowd to be as electric as they were. They really got behind each and every one of us.

“I was soaking in every single moment, the feeling, the smell, I was really soaking it up. I could not be prouder.”