Paula Radcliffe will be given every chance to compete in what she hopes to be a cathartic triumph in Beijing, even if that means delaying a decision on whether she is fit enough to run until the day before the Olympic marathon. The world record-holder had tests on her fractured femur at the Olympic Medical Institute in London yesterday and said: “It's a race against time.”

Radcliffe, who endured a torrid Olympics in 2004 when illness and injury forced her to drop out of the marathon and the 10,000metres, has flown back to her training base in Font Romeu, France, where she will continue to fight a battle that the doctors have already claimed is an impossible one.

But Team GB will do all it can to help the 34-year-old and Dave Collins, the UK Athletics performance director, said no deadline had been given for Radcliffe to declare her fitness. Hayley Haining is on standby and has the option to travel to the Olympic training camp in Macau, but Collins said: “I'd want to give Hayley as much notice as I could, but I'd rather run the nominated athlete because she is better.”

Asked if it would be fair to give Haining as little as 24 hours' notice that she would be running the marathon, Collins said: “Why not? She has been preparing and been briefed all along as a reserve.” That is a commonsense approach given that Radcliffe, if fit, would be in an exclusive club of medal prospects. “You want to play your A team when you can,” Collins said.

If Radcliffe does make it to the Games, which are only 24 days away, and performs well it will constitute a comeback far more remarkable than that of Dwain Chambers. “It would be absolutely miraculous, but she knows how to run effectively,” Collins said. “When you have an athlete of that quality you giver her the options. I think there is a possibility [of her competing], otherwise we would not be going down this process. If she goes, she will go ready to perform.”