Collins tells British athletes to cancel their travel plans

Performance director Dave Collins calls it 'dissuasion' but it amounts to an ultimatum: You want Lottery money, you do it my way.

Scroll down for more

First to be affected may be Lee McConnell, one of the bronze medal-winning 4x400 metres relay team at the World Championships in Osaka. She has been invited to train with world 400m hurdles champion Jana Rawlinson in Australia.

Collins, instead, wants all his key players where his support staff can watch them and that means training in Potchefstroom, at high altitude in South Africa, where Kelly Holmes has established her camp for young athletes.

Collins will dispatch a team of doctors, physiotherapists, masseurs and coaches there for three weeks before Christmas and another three-week camp in the New Year.

'It seems ridiculous to invest a lot in quality of care and then let people disappear on their own for weeks at a time,' said Collins. 'It's one of the factors that led to injuries.'

He was not happy that he lost middle distance runner Becky Lyne for the World Championships because she was injured while at a camp in Australia.

Eleven British athletes on the highest level of Lottery support were unavailable for Osaka because of injury.