ONE of Britain’s brightest hopes for next year’s London Olympics Games has revealed how injury left her fearing her career was over.

Chester-born Jo Leedham, 23, is one of the best female basketball players this country has ever produced and is a regular in the Great Britain women’s team.

But the 23-year-old’s world came crashing down while she was playing for Polish team AZS PWSZ Gorzów Wielkopolski.

“I picked up an injury,” said Ellesmere Port-based Leedham. “It was in my knee and tests revealed it was a form of tendinopathy.”

Tendon injuries like patellar tendinitis are common in basketball and Leedham was told this particular type was degenerative and she needed to stop playing.

“I was gutted,” she said. “It was really hard. I had never had a bad injury before and I had never not been able to play basketball.

“I couldn’t do what I used to and I thought I would never play again.”

But while Gorzów released her to return home, Team GB kept faith, conscious of the fact that if they could keep her career alive, she could repay them with interest by stunning the world at London 2012.

They invested time and money in medical care and rehabilitation for Leedham and even included her in the squad for last week’s four-game invitational tournament against Germany, Cuba and Latvia in Surrey which acted as a warm-up for next month’s European Women’s Championship in Poland.

While she was not fit in time to play, Leedham hopes to pull on the GB jersey in Sunday’s clash against Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) at the Manchester Evening News Arena.

“It has been a long, tough road and I have had my doubts along the way,” said Leedham, who deferred a place in the WNBA in order to focus on helping her country qualify for the Olympics.

“Being out of the game for so long has been really difficult and I have had to find mental strength to get through. But I have had great support from Team GB, my family and friends and my boyfriend and they have helped me believe I can come back and continue to have the successful career I have worked for.

“I am close to making a comeback and there was a time when I thought that would never happen.”