Long-jump star Luvo Manyonga on crutches

Injured long-jump star Luvo Manyonga will return to competition in mid-July after suffering a “light ankle strain” in Stockholm at the weekend.

The Olympic silver medallist has been on crutches in Pretoria this week — but only as a precaution‚ according to agent Lee-Roy Newton — after hurting his left ankle‚ the one he takes off with‚ on his final attempt at the last Diamond League meet.

Newton said Manyonga would return to full training next week and would jump in competition again at the Diamond League meet in Rabat on July 16.

He pointed out that Manyonga had suffered the same injury twice this year already‚ at the Gauteng North and South African championships‚ in March and April.

“He’s really just pushing his body to the next level‚” Newton said.

Manyonga‚ who missed Olympic gold by 1cm at the 2016 Rio Games‚ is the favourite for the world championships in London in August‚ having dominated the event this year by owning the four best jumps to date‚ from 8.61m to 8.65m.

Nobody has jumped that far since 2009.

So far Manyonga has already had the satisfaction of exacting some level of revenge on Olympic champion Jeff Henderson of the US‚ who is ranked just 19th in the world at the moment‚ easily outduelling him in Shanghai in May.