A DECISION on whether Sonia O'Sullivan returns to the track for next Friday's grand prix event at Berlin, may be delayed until the morning of the meeting.

This was one of the options being discussed yesterday as O'Sullivan and her handlers discussed her comeback plans in the wake of her precipitous collapse in the Olympic Games in Atlanta.

And the fact that a decision could be deferred until some 12 hours before she is due to run, illustrates the depth of her crisis.

"We are still undecided about whether she should run in Berlin and as I see it, it may not be possible to arrive at that decision until the morning of the meeting," said her agent Kim McDonald.

It is understood that O'Sullivan is anxious to run but as yet her advisers are not convinced that she is ready to handle the pressures of returning at this level of the sport.

There was speculation that she would test her form in a low-key meeting at Sheffield last Sunday in a 1,500 metres race which would have enabled her to ease her way back into competition. However, the plan was abandoned.

It reinforced the belief of some of her fellow athletes that in spite of regular training sessions since returning from Atlanta, she is not prepared, physically or mentally, at this stage to put the harrowing experience of Atlanta behind her.

The next listed meeting after Berlin is in Milan on September 7th when the finals of the grand prix series offer her the chance of a £33,000 pay-night to compensate in part for her loss of earnings over the last fortnight.

To judge by the reaction of some of her training partners in London, however, that too may be in some doubt as opinion hardens that she should now take a protracted break from competition.

The results of medical tests carried out on her return from Atlanta, reveal that in addition to diarrhoea, she was suffering from a urinary tract infection.

An equally important factor may have been fatigue after three years of non-stop competition in which she competed in more than 70 top class races.

Punitive programmes on that kind of scale inevitably take their toll. Unfortunately, in O'Sullivan's case. the pay-back came at a time when she could least afford it.