Jessica Ennis is putting her worst foot forward but is still hoping to complete one of the most remarkable comebacks of the sporting year.

The softly spoken heptathlete with the Steel City attitude has ended months of injury doubts by positioning herself as the best in the world. “I wouldn't wish my year on anyone else, but it's done me good and made me fresher,” she said.

That she set a personal best on her return in Italy in May, the tally of 6,587 points putting her third in the United Kingdom's all-time list, was all the more significant because she did it after rebuilding her long jump. “I've changed my take-off foot because I want to manage the toll on my right ankle,” she said. “I'm confident I'll be able to jump farther than before in the long run, but that's the event I need to work on because I've lost a bit.”

It was the right ankle that sidelined her last summer. Billed as a medal hope for the Beijing Olympic Games, Ennis suffered two stress fractures while competing in Austria. She said she went home, cried a lot, sat on a magnetic bed every day and received enough flowers to make her think someone had died.

“I can still remember the doctor saying that we had to be very careful or it could be career-threatening,” she said. “My heart sank when I heard that and I panicked. The Olympics were gone, but it could have been much worse.”

Kelly Sotherton, the rival who nicknamed her “Tadpole”, said that people would expect too much of her Sheffield-based rival when she returned, but Ennis's form has backed up the optimism. Since her comeback in Italy six weeks ago, she has steadily been setting personal bests and is now eyeing the British 100 metres hurdles record at the Aviva World Trials, which start in Birmingham tomorrow week.

Her return has coincided with others' misfortune. Sotherton is struggling to make it to the World Championships in Berlin in August, Hyleas Fountain, the Olympic silver medal-winner, failed to make it through the US trials last week, and Lyudmila Blonska, of Ukraine, is serving a life ban for doping.

“If people want to make me a favourite then I'm not going to complain, given where I was a year ago,” she said. “Anything can happen in this event. I was watching Fountain's results on the internet and saw her long jump and thought, ‘That's massive.' Then I heard she failed to make it through the trials.”

The form of Ennis, 23, has inevitably drawn approval from Charles van Commenee, the head coach of UK Athletics, who reflected on the latest spate of personal bests and termed her Britain's “beautiful asset”. He then suggested they would be quaking in Ukraine, a reference to Nataliya Dobrynska, the Olympic champion. “I like that,” Ennis said.

On Saturday, she will be at Wimbledon to watch the women's singles final and she admits that “Murraymania” has given her a taste of what to expect in 2012. “It will be like that for all the British athletes and it's added pressure, but my main concern is finding something to wear for Centre Court,” she said.

She must also decide whether to ban her family from travelling to Berlin in August. “It was awful last year as they'd all bought tickets for Beijing and it cost a fortune,” she said. In fact, the tickets for parents, grandparents, boyfriend and sister came to £18,000. “They wanted to come to Italy, but I said I'd text them the results. With it going so well, I don't know what to do now. I said, ‘Mum, it's up to you.'”

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