Athletics: Virus setback for Willis

A virus has dealt athlete Nick Willis a Commonwealth Games setback and forced him to move house.

Willis, rated by athletics great John Walker as a gold medal chance in the 1500m in Melbourne later this month, moved out of his family home in Wellington due to a bug which left his father bedridden on Friday.

He picked up a minor dose which forced him to take the weekend off training, Newstalk ZB reported.

Willis said it was "a bit of a nuisance", but it was a problem he had learned to deal with on a regular basis in his career, and it shouldn't affect him at the Games.

Willis is due to run an 800m event in Melbourne on Thursday, but will wait until after a jog later today before deciding whether to compete.

- NZPA