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Cadel Evans said he is unlikely to compete at the world championships this year after revealing the extent of his knee injury following the Olympic cycling time trial on Wednesday.

After finishing 15th in the road race last Saturday, the Australian battled
through the pain to finish a commendable fifth in the 47.3km race at 1min 23sec behind unstoppable Swiss winner Fabian Cancellara.

The 31-year-old Australian admitted he was happy with the result as he had
spent the run-up to the Games trying to recover from a damaged anterior
cruciate ligament in his right knee.

“With everything that’s gone on in the last three months - I had tendinitis, a huge crash in the Tour de France, defending the yellow (jersey) with only one leg and breaking my anterior cruciate ligament - I was on crutches for three or four days after the Tour,” he said.

Asked how he felt now his Games campaign was over, he replied: “Not bad,
but not great - no medals, a lot of hard work.”

Evans battled the pain of tendonitis in his left knee in the build-up to
the Tour de France, where he then rode through the pain of a crash to a second
consecutive runner-up place.

At a post-Tour party, he reportedly slipped and damaged his knee, although
the extent of the injury was played down.

In reality, he spent two days on crutches and had extensive rehabilitation
work in a bid to make it to the Olympics.

He added: “To be here vying for the medals isn’t a bad effort. I worked
flat-out for a week after the Tour to recover from that (the post-Tour knee
injury).”

A damaged anterior cruciate ligament means the knee loses much of its
stability although cyclists can avoid a reconstruction because there is no
sharp lateral movement involved in the pedaling motion.

Evans denied his season was over.

But speaking through a team spokesman he said he would “probably not” ride
the world championships in Varese, Italy in September.

The spokesman said the only race currently on his schedule was the Tour of
Poland in September.