STEVEN Burke admits he will not be 100 per cent fit when he takes to the boards in the Track Cycling World Championships in France this afternoon.

The Colne star has recovered from a broken collarbone sustained during a training ride in Mallorca five weeks ago to make the British squad but the team pursuit ace admits he won’t be at his best when Team GB get their campaign underway.

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The 26-year-old said: “The recovery went as well as it could have done. The surgery went great. The bone is now dead straight. I got that done a couple of days after the accident and recovered quite well from it.

“I am never going to be 100 per cent at the World Championships, because I lost out on a bit of endurance work, but we have made the best of a bad situation.

“It was a bit unfortunate but we have got to press on and move on from it and do the best you can.”

Despite Burke’s setback his team-mate and fellow London 2012 Olympic champion Ed Clancy, believes the East Lancashire star, who will ride for the newly-formed Team Wiggins on the road this season, can be a key man for the British squad even though he is not guaranteed to ride.

Clancy said: “When he fell off and I looked behind and he was holding his collarbone, first thing I thought was, ‘That’s it - we haven’t got a chance without Burkey’.

“People don’t know how good Burkey is. When he’s on form, I don’t think there’s a better team pursuiter in the world than Burkey.”

And British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton added weight to Clancy’s argument by confirming that Burke was always going to be selected in the squad.

Sutton, who admitted that Burke may only ride one round of a possible three, said: “The decision to include him was taken five seconds after he hit the deck. Even if Steven wasn’t going to be 100 per cent fit, he was going to be included in this team.

“He has had a couple of lean years since London and didn’t make the team last year, but at the time of the crash, I would say his numbers were better than most within the squad. That’s indicative of the fact his desire is back and his hunger is back, and we couldn’t not take him to Paris, whether he rides or not.

“We wanted to show our faith in him and show reward for the hard work he has put in.”

Team pursuit qualifying begins at 3pm today and should Britain make it through they will race twice tomorrow with round one in the afternoon and the final from 7pm. The championships in Paris run until Sunday.