Keatings believes he's well on the road to recovery

By Chris Cottrell, Sportsbeat

DAN Keatings' London 2012 hopes were rocked by injury this spring - but with the Games now less than two years away he insists his gold medal dream is back on track.

BOUNCING BACK: Daniel Keatings believes he is well on the road to recovery after serious injury (Getty Images)

Keatings made history in 2009 when he became the first GB gymnast to claim an all-round global medal with silver at the World Championships.

The 20-year-old backed that up with pommel horse European Championship gold in April only for disaster to strike weeks later when a training accident left him with anterior cruciate ligament damage.

The injury required an operation and has left Keatings to set his sights on next year's European Championships as his first major event back.

But despite his injury hell, Keatings is already plotting his return to action as he bids for glory in the capital in two years' time.

"I'm recuperating quite well now," said Keatings. "It's coming along very quickly. I'm not going to be training full time on all six pieces of apparatus until December. But I've already started training on four of them now.

"I'm excited about the Olympics. Beijing still feels only a couple of months ago - I can't believe how quick it's all going. The next two years won't be any different either - they're going to go really, really quick.

"So I'm a little bit nervous to think of it in the back of your mind but I'm more excited than anything.

"It's important for us athletes not to get ahead of ourselves though. For the gymnasts, there are still some big competitions coming up in the next two years with the Europeans and Worlds.

"We've got to concentrate on them first to try and get the qualifying places for the Olympics. So I'm just going to take those competitions as they come and then when we're in 2012, that's when I'm really going to think about the Olympic competition."