HOLLY Lam-Moores’ Olympic handball dream has been saved thanks to a mysterious injury.

A scan on a painful leg revealed that the 21-year-old from Burnley had an unrelated bone stress injury to a metatarsal in her left foot.

Had the injury gone undetected, the former Alder Grange High School pupil revealed she could well have been ruled out of London 2012.

“I’ve had a pain in my leg for a while so we decided to get it checked out and that is when we found the injury to the fifth metatarsal on my left foot.

“It was something that hadn’t particularly been troubling me but if I had carried on playing then I could have fractured it and that would have been the end of the Olympics for me. That would have been the end of my dream.”

Lam-Moores, who has won 45 Great Britain caps and is the second highest all-time scorer with 121 goals, admitted it is frustrating because she was in top form before the injury struck.

“I have been very lucky with injuries and have been virtually fit all the time in the last five years,” added Lam-Moores who took up the game while at Alder Grange and joined Haslingden Handball Club.

“We played in a test event at the Olympic Arena in December and FROM PAGE XX from a personal point of view I played very well and scored goals in all three matches.

“On a positive note though, finding the injury now means I have plenty of time to get fully match fit ahead of the Olympics.”

The scan also revealed that Lam-Moores is suffering from synovitus – a painful inflamm-ation that affects the joints – and has had an injection to relieve the pain.

She spent the Christmas period wearing an air cast boot to protect the injury “We don’t really know too much about it but I am hoping it will get better with a bit of rest.

“I was wearing the protective boot over Christ-mas so that was a good time because there was little going on at that time.”

Lam-Moores, who has played professionally across Scandinavia, is now based in London with the rest of the GB handball squad.

While she can’t return to impact training, Lam-Moores is spending plenty of time in the gym on the cycling machine and rowers.

“Fitness wise I am fine,” added Lam Moores who missed GB’s double header against Angola. “But it will probably take me a little time to get back to full match fitness.

“The secret is not to rush back too quickly and do any unrepairable damage.”

Lam-Moores has already had a little taste of what the Olympics will be like and doesn’t want to jeapodise acheiving her goal.

She said: “That test event was absolutely fantastic and it was a little glimpse of what it will be like at the Olympics.

“There was a big crowd and the atmosphere was amazing. I have worked hard for the last five years to get to the Olympics and that test event finally made me realise how close I am to achieving that goal.”