STOCKTON Heath judo star Abbie Cunningham is hoping a knee injury will not hamper her challenge at the Junior European Championships in Estonia this weekend.

The 19-year-old, who trains at SKK Judo Club in Newton, is in her last year as a junior and earlier in the year she had high hopes of clinching gold in Tallinn.

But a medial knee ligament injury sustained in July has hit her preparations for the event, ruling her out of a junior A tournament in Poland and a training camp in Berlin.

Cunningham, who has also been selected to compete in the World Junior Championships in the Dominican Republic next month, flew out to Estonia with the Great Britain team yesterday, Wednesday, and will start the over 78kg competition on Sunday.

She said: "I'm looking forward to it, although I'm a bit nervous because of my knee and because it's the Europeans.

"I'm not 100 per cent but my knee is feeling good again and I'm probably 95 or maybe 90 per cent. I've been doing full combat.

"I did it about a month and a half ago when someone didn't throw me right.

"Missing the training camp in Berlin was a setback but I've been doing a lot of upper body work and there's been a lot of mental preparation.

"I said ages ago I wanted to win this but I don't know now because of my knee injury, so I'll just see how it goes.

"It's my last year so I've got to go for it, but if I have any problems with my knee I'm pulling out to be ready for the world champion-ships."