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Australian basketball great Lauren Jackson will wait until the end of the current WNBL season before deciding whether to retire or push on to the Rio Olympics.
The 34-year-old is back training with the Canberra Capitals this week but admits she is still struggling to jump off her leg following surgery – her ninth – on a troublesome knee in October.
“I’m sort of at the point where if it doesn’t make it through this season, then I’m going to have to call it a day,” she told La Trobe University’s Sport in Regional Australia conference on Monday.
“I’m yet to get back out on court this year, so to get through 16 games or however many are left, it’s going to be a big task.
“But if I do that, then maybe I’ll go onto Rio.”
Opals coach Brendon Joyce said last month the only chance Jackson has of playing at the 2016 Games is to “rehab properly”.
But the four-time Olympian said the injury and incessant rehabilitation had left her feeling “almost exhausted”.
“I’m trying to remain positive but it’s difficult,” she conceded.
“It’s unfortunate that my career’s sort of wound up this way because I always wanted to have control over my retirement and how it was going to happen.
“But this is completely out of my control.
“I’ve done everything I can for it.”
The Capitals won five of the six games Jackson played last season, and have lost all seven fixtures without her this campaign.
Jackson also remains contracted to the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.
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