Gavin Thompson launched a scathing attack on the Great Britain selectors after finding out he had been omitted from the squad for the World Cross Country Championships on the internet.

The Crawley star had been forced to pull out of the trials last Saturday after aggravating a calf injury but told the selectors he was confident of being fit to travel to Kenya next month.

Thompson hoped the fact he had competed in the last two World Championships and was part of the British team which came fourth in the European Championship in December would help him clinch one of the five remaining places.

But selectors ignored the 25-year-old's previous experience and angered the former Ardingly College pupil by failing to inform him of the bad news.

Thompson, from Uckfield, said: "I hadn't heard from the selectors so I was looking on the UK Athletics website and saw that I wasn't in the team.

"To find out that way was very disappointing and I think I deserve some kind of explanation because some of the guys named in the team have never beaten me before.

"What made it worse was that one of the coaches asked me if I was able to attend a training camp in South Africa after the trials and made me think I was in contentiona and raised my hopes.

"There are still five weeks to go until the championships so I thought the selectors would give me the benefit of the doubt over my fitness."