Freyja Prentice admits the nature of her early season injury is still hard to comprehend but insists it will have little bearing as she prepares for the Modern Pentathlon World Championships in Kaohsiung.
The 23-year-old tore her hamstring picking up a cardboard box in January and only competed for the first time this year in June, finishing third at the Budapest Open Championships.
Prentice then moved onto the European Championships across the continent in Drzonkow in Poland and was the best British finisher in the individual competition in fourth.
And Prentice admits her performance at the Europeans has acted as a confident boost as she, defending individual world champion Mhairi Spence, Olympic silver medallist Samantha Murray and Kate French prepare to compete in Chinese Taipei.
"Competing at the World Championships was a long-term aim as I didn't know how I was going to hold up at the Europeans so it was nice to perform strongly," said Prentice.
"I would have taken fourth place so I can't be disappointed that I just missed out on a bronze. In my mind, I was really pleased.
"I tore my hamstring in January picking up a cardboard box. I thought at the time it didn't feel too good but didn't really notice too much.
“It was the next morning and I could barely walk and wondered what was going on. No-one believed I could have torn the hamstring in such a way and we didn't realise I'd done so much damage.
“I thought I was going to be out for a couple of weeks so when a month dragged on to five months, I was tearing my hair out.”
© Sportsbeat 2013