French 'relieved to be ready' for Paris after injury

Hannah French won a 2022 Commonwealth Games gold medal playing for England

Great Britain's Hannah French has shared her relief at winning an injury race against time in order to play in her second Olympics hockey tournament.

The 29-year-old had surgery to repair a broken thumb just days before receiving news of her selection for Paris last month.

But she is now fully fit again and able to take part in final preparations as the GB women's team look to improve on their bronze medal three years ago.

"It's a dream come true to play at one Olympics, let alone two, but I've seen similar scenarios with both selections, given I had an injury before Tokyo, and an injury now," French told BBC Radio Suffolk.

"Receiving a selection email when you're not fully fit is quite a tough one because you don't allow yourself to fully believe you're going. But it's a pretty good motivation to have.

"When [news of my] selection came I'd had surgery four days before, so my mind that week, it was really stressful but I just focused on what I can control, that being my recovery and doing everything I possibly can to heal and recover as well as possible."

French, who first played international hockey in 2017, won a bronze medal in Tokyo four months after suffering a broken leg and ankle ligament damage.

She had to go through a similar process of returning to fitness after picking up the hand injury in an FIH Pro League game.

"It as pretty daunting to hear that I would need surgery but we got a couple of opinions from specialists and it seemed like the best option to get me back as quickly as possible - and ensure I was as strong as possible going into the Games," she said.

Hannah French playing against Belgium during the Olympic qualifying tournament in Valencia in January

Great Britain start the tournament with a lunchtime game against Spain on 28 July and are also in the same group as Australia, South Africa, United States and Tokyo runners-up Argentina.

French, from Ipswich, said: "Both pools are extremely tough, you've got the top four teams in the world competing and so every single match is a really hard game."

But the team have already proved their ability to produce a result under pressure, having come through the FIH qualifiers bronze-medal match in January to secure their place at the Games.

"The Olympic qualifier back in January was crazy, it was probably the most pressure I've felt in an England or Great Britain shirt," the Surbiton forward added.

"It came down to a one-off match against Ireland. They're an extremely tough opponent and we knew it would be a very tight game.

"It was a 50-50 shootout of who got an Olympic spot and fortunately we were on the right side of the result. There was a huge sense of relief."