HOPEFUL Tom Reed is raring to play it again and take a late shot at realising his Olympic dream after making his injury comeback in Casablanca.

The 30-year-old judoka, from Devizes, was in action for the first time this year at the African Open in Morocco and although Reed could only manage a seventh-placed finish, he was delighted to be back competing after undergoing surgery on a long-standing elbow problem in January.

In the U81kg division, Reed beat Burkina Faso’s Hermann Monne and Italian Diego Frustaci but he was finally ousted by eventual winner Attlia Ungvari, from Hungary, in his final pool match before also losing out to Spain’s Adrian Nacimiento Lorenzo.

In order to be in with a shot of securing a spot representing Great Britain at Rio 2016 later this year, the Wiltshire player needs to act fast and claim around 300 world ranking points from his next two tournaments – Grand Prix events in Tbilisi, Georgia, which takes place this weekend, and Samsun, Turkey, on April 1-3.

Time may not be on his side but after coming through his Moroccan test unscathed, Reed is ready to give it a go.

“I’m going to need to medal at my next tournament or it’s all over,” said the 2014 Commonwealth Games silver medallist, who also picked up a gold medal at the Miami Grand Prix a year earlier.

“You get 300 points for gold at a Grand Prix, so I could do it all in one go, and then 180 for silver and 120 for a bronze.

“So I’ve still got a chance of getting 300 points, which is what I would approximately need to qualify.

“I wish that I’d been able to get a medal in Morocco because I was in every fight and they all went the distance, but at this level, you have to take your chances.”

Team Bath-based ace Reed added: “My elbow had been a problem for about a year.

“It was getting arthritic and there were a few fractures, so some bone fragments had moved into the muscle areas, so I had surgery in January and was back on the mat in the middle of February.

“I got myself fit for when I knew I was going to be out, though, and I didn’t have any problems with it at all last weekend, so I’m feeling really good and that’s a big positive for me.

“I’ll probably always have to manage it and it will never be like it was before but mentally and physically, I feel good.

“I’ve only won one Grand Prix before but if everything goes right and you get that bit of external luck that you need, you can get a medal.”