YOU don't need to be Australian head coach Alan Thompson to realise the impact of losing world record holder Eamon Sullivan and Olympic backstroke medallist Hayden Stoeckel on the eve of the world titles, but the coach hopes someone in his men's team will take the opportunity to step up and perform in Rome.
Speaking from Milan yesterday, Thompson said it was naturally disappointing to lose the pair - who between them were not only to have swum five individual events, but also two relays - just two weeks out from the start of the championships. Sullivan is out with a virus, and Stoeckel has a shoulder complaint.
"You've got two individual Olympic medallists from last year you are taking out of your team, but also their contributions to the relays is enormous, and it's a blow to us," Thompson said. "But we've taken this decision with the future and ultimately 2012 [London Olympics] in mind.
"We lost [Ian] Thorpe in 2005, and [Grant] Hackett in 2006, and other people stood up, and that's what I have to expect our guys will do again, stand up, and it will be good to see who does."
Thompson flew to Milan late last week, where Grant Stoelwinder's squad of Sullivan, Libby Trickett, Andrew Lauterstein and Matt Abood have been training, and it was there on Saturday that the decision about Sullivan's world titles was made.
"It's something that's been on the cards for a little while now," Thompson said of Sullivan's withdrawal. "He's had this virus since he left Australia, so for about six or seven weeks now, and we thought he would shake it quickly after he got to Europe. But it didn't happen, and when he swam through those meets in Europe, it knocked him about again.
"I've been touching base with 'Stolly' a couple of times a week while they have been over here, and it doesn't seem to have got any better, and it got to the point … that we had to start thinking about it and put a couple of options in place.
"We could have taken him to Manchester on Tuesday [when the Australian team goes into camp], and see how he went, or we could have pulled him out of the individual events and just swam the relays. Or the other option was to pull out altogether, and in the end we worked out that would be the best option to take.
"He'll head home on Monday and get on top of it and get it sorted out. It's just an underlying viral infection, nothing is coming up on any blood tests, but he'll start to feel better and then work hard or race and perform OK, then he'll continue to be drained again for another period of time. It just hasn't improved at all, so we figured it was better to not risk making it worse, just get home and get fixed up and be ready to go again.
"It was not an easy decision to make, but one we had to make."
Stoeckel injured his shoulder competing in Tucson in May, and while there is no structural damage, he could not shake the injury, and after Thompson consulted his coach, Peter Bishop, in Adelaide, they also decided it was best not to even bother heading to Manchester.
Neither Sullivan nor Stoeckel will be replaced in the Australian team. Thompson said Abood would take the world-record holder's spot in the 100 metres freestyle, with Lauterstein - third at the trials in the event and the obvious choice to replace Sullivan - preferring to focus on his 100m butterfly. Lauterstein will, however, still swim in the freestyle relay.
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