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European slalom canoeing champion Ryan Westley said he thought his career was "done" two years ago due to repeated injuries and the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 30-year-old from Merriott in Somerset said he was "out the door" and thinking about trying something else.

After a three-year absence he returned to international competition and won C1 gold at the European Games this July.

Westley is competing at the World Championships in London this week with the Paris 2024 Olympics in his sights.

"I was fortunate enough that British Canoeing and UK Sport looked after me there, gave me another chance and then things started going a lot better for me," he told ���˿��� Radio Somerset.

Last time Westley won the European title he was enjoying the "best" year of his career in 2018.

He made the final of every major competition he entered, won a silver at the World Championships and was ranked third in the world.

"I felt like everything was coming together, I'd figured it all out," Westley said.

"That was going into Olympic selection the next year for Tokyo and I was feeling incredible, everything was going how I could want it to."

Yet he had been struggling with injury and that winter had to have an operation to replace a ligament in his shoulder.

It was a major operation but the psychological effects took much more of a toll than Westley anticipated.

"Going into 2019 I wasn't any worse but my confidence had taken such a knock from the lack of training, you don't trust your body as much, you've had to spend a lot of time on the sidelines watching other people train," Westley said.

"I never really anticipated how big the mental impact of injuries are, I think they're probably more significant than the physical ones."

Westley ended up having "a really bad year" in 2019 and missed out on selection for the Olympics. The pandemic curtailed training and competing even further before a second shoulder injury in 2021 also required an operation.

"I was basically out the door, I thought I was done, I was ready to leave and go and do something else," he added.

'Enjoy every race'

Since returning to competition, Westley has a new-found approach.

"Mentally, just everything feels easy now, I'm just super grateful to be there," he continued.

"I probably took everything for granted before, whereas now I just try and enjoy every race, want to make the most of those opportunities because they're definitely not going to be there forever."

Westley, who also won bronze as part of the men's team event at the European Games this summer, has secured Great Britain their quota in the men's C1 for next year's Olympics with his gold medal in July.

After missing out in Tokyo, making it to the Paris Games is Westley's biggest ambition.

"It's for me the one race that I haven't done," he added.

"To be part of Team GB, to call yourself an Olympian, it is the one reason for everything, why everyone is here in canoe slalom. To get that opportunity would be incredible."