World champion hurdler Jana Rawlinson is out of the Beijing Olympics with a toe injury, news reports said Wednesday.

Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper said the 400-metre hurdles specialist had pulled out of the Australia squad.

She raced for the first time in nine months in Poland last week but her toe problem has recurred.

The 25-year-old, known as Jana Pittman before her 2006 marriage to retired English hurdler Chris Rawlinson, finished fifth in the final at the 2004 Athens Olympics after having a knee operation a week before the Games.

Rawlinson won the 400-metre hurdles at the 2003 and 2007 world championships, her second victory coming just eight months after the birth of her first child.

Rawlinson's absence sees Poland's Anna Jesien as the favourite in Beijing. Jesien won bronze in the 400-metre hurdles at last year's world championships.

Rawlinson had planned to race three times over the next three weeks, finishing her race preparations at the London Grand Prix July 25-26 before spending the lead up to the Beijing Games in Japan.