Ennis-Hill made her much-anticipated comeback to athletics last week, taking part at a meet in Loughborough before competing in the hurdles and long jump in the Sainsbury's Anniversary Games at the Olympic Stadium in London having not competed since her gold medal win at London 2012, in what was effectively a fitness test for the World Championships.

The British poster girl finished fourth in the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.08sec - over half-a-second slower than her time at London 2012 - behind Australian Olympic champion Sally Pearson.

Ennis-Hill previously stated that she would only compete at the World Championships if she felt she had a realistic chance of re-capturing the heptathlon world title she won at Berlin in 2009, and yesterday's news that the woman that condemned her to silver in Daegu two years ago, Russian rival Chernova, would not be competing in Moscow due to knee ligament damage looked as if it could leave the door open for her to compete against a weakened field.

Ennis finished fourth in the 100m hurdles at the Anniversary Games but has failed in her bid to be fit for next month's World Championships in Moscow

But the Briton has today confirmed that she will also not be competing in Russia, with her coach Toni Minichiello claiming that the most important thing is to ensure her long-term fitness.

"To say I am gutted is an understatement," she said.

"No athlete likes to miss the opportunity to compete at a major championships - they don't come round that often."

"Up until now we have been focusing on managing the pain so I can train and get myself in shape to win in Moscow."

"The time has now come to stop chasing fitness and look to cure the problem.

"We have not seen enough improvement that would have made completing the two day, seven events of the heptathlon possible,"

"There are nine global medals up for grabs over the next three years not including Moscow, so a long term view has been taken."

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