Phil Healy withdraws from World Championships

Phil Healy has withdrawn from the Irish team for the forthcoming World Championships in order to recover "mentally and physically" for the Olympic Games.

The World Championships are due to take place later this month in Hungary but the 28-year-old has said she is finishing her season now after an "extremely tough and testing 16 months" in which she attempted to deal with auto-immune disease.

Healy had been due to compete in the women's 4x400m relay race after the team qualified via finishing sixth at the European Games in Munich in 2022.

She competed in the National Championships at the weekend, finishing fourth in the 400m final.

"I need to give my body the best chance of recovery as we go into a big year, ahead of another Olympic Games," Healy said on Twitter.

"It has been an extremely tough and testing 16 months where I questioned continuing with the sport many times.

"However, nothing is ever linear so we battled on and made a lot of progress in terms of the diagnosis, treatment and regulation of my Autoimmune Disease. We just lost a lot of consistency and time, training wise."