Mark Carroll makes a move down to the 1,500 metres in Milan this evening for his second grand prix race of the summer ahead of his much-anticipated appearance at the Cork City Sports on Saturday week.

Carroll's opening race over 3,000 metres in Stuttgart last Sunday ended with an encouraging time of seven minutes 41.45 seconds in eighth place. The same day the Irish men's team failed in their attempt to stay in the Europa Cup First League.

Carroll's controversial withdrawal from that team raised doubts over his selection for the World Championships later this summer although yesterday his agent, Ray Flynn, suggested that such a problem would not arise.

According to Flynn, Carroll's selection was learnt long after he had committed himself to the alternative race and left it impractical for Carroll to change his arrangements.

Carroll said he wants to put the issue behind him. "If there is a problem down the road, then we'll deal with it," he said. "I haven't heard anything yet from BLE and from what I gather, a lot of this talk about there being a problem is just media speculation."

This Sunday Carroll will move on to Nuremberg for his first 5,000 metres of the season. He will return to his native Cork immediately afterwards, and after the Cork City Sports he will travel back to his American base to continue his training before returning home for the National Championships at the end of July.