Matt Maher: Judo Gem set for biggest battle yet.. just being Gem

For Howell, it is a life she has clung to determinedly, frequently defying the odds, for the past quarter of a century.

Now at the age of 33, the former European judo champion and two-time Olympian has finally had to let go, an 11th major surgery of a career which has been both extraordinary and inspiring in equal measure having eventually proven the tipping point.

“At some stage, you have to start listening to your body,” Howell explains. “Mine was screaming at me to stop.”

Her retirement, announced earlier this month, was both understandable and at the same time shocking because, having so often overcome adversity, you had begun to wonder whether there was anything which could stop her?

By most logical measures, Howell’s career should have been ended long before now by a list of injuries which could fill a medical manual. The series of surgeries she underwent includes the reconstruction of anterior and medial ligaments in both knees, along with procedures to repair a dislocated elbow and a bulging disk in her neck. At one point, after developing an infection in her knee, Howell was warned there was a risk of losing her leg.

“I was more worried my ACL might need reconstructing again. I didn’t really think about the amputation,” she told the Express & Star last year, after winning silver at the Commonwealth Games while nursing a shoulder injury which, while not requiring surgery, was still more serious than she disclosed at the time.

An athlete who was the dictionary definition of resilient, who always rebounded and came back for more, Howell effectively competed at this year’s world championships with a broken arm due to a detached bicep.

After being told in May surgery to repair the problem would be career-ending, it comes as no surprise to find she made one final attempt to defy the doctors, still believing in her “one per cent chance” of pulling through it and competing in a third Olympic Games next year.

Only when treatment to ease a genetic skin condition in her hands pushed back any chance of a comeback beyond the Paris 2024 qualification period did she finally admit defeat. Even now, knowing she has made the right decision, you sense she can’t quite fully accept it.

“I am not sure I was even 100 per cent sure about retiring, even when I was saying it,” admits Howell. “I think I was kind of living in denial. I don’t want it to end, ever. But it has to. It was the best ride of my life but it is over.”

For Stafford-born Howell, known to friends as “Judo Gem” from the moment she first walked into Wolverhampton Judo Club at the age of eight, the decision was ultimately motivated by the knowledge there is a life outside the sport, one which risked being seriously impacted if she continued to ignore her body.