Alex Danson: Olympic champion to return to Great Britain set-up after head injury

Alex Danson will return to the Great Britain hockey set-up 18 months after suffering a head injury that she says "tested me to my limits".

Olympic gold medallist Danson has had long-term concussion after hitting her head on a wall in 2018.

The 34-year-old wrote that she was "still not 100%" but "time was running out" before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

"Every moment we have whether as a hockey player or in life, is a gift," Danson wrote on Instagram.

Danson will return to training with the rest of the players on the centralised programme on Monday, with the Tokyo Olympics beginning on 24 July.

"I'm not who I was, I have a richness of experience that only these last long months could have given me," she wrote.

"I was determined that I would take more from this experience than it would take from me, I have.

"These moments are truly made by the people you share them with, I can not wait to be back with you all."

Danson previously said she "lost her identity" after suffering the injury while laughing at a joke on holiday in Kenya.

She was part of the Great Britain team which won Olympic gold at the Rio Olympics in 2016, but has not played since captaining England in their World Cup quarter-final loss to the Netherlands in August 2018.

"The last 18 months have tested me to perhaps my limits, with my health, isolation and inability to do the things I used to do with such ease," she wrote.

"I am delighted that I am able to return to the place [where] I've spent more time in my life than I have at home."