Rutherford to the rescue

Greg Rutherford has revealed on Twitter how he tried to rescue an injured deer he found while out walking his dogs.

The 28-year-old longjumper, who won a gold medal for Britain at the London 2012 Olympics, discovered the young animal, which he later christened Doris, near his home in Milton Keynes.

Rutherford called the RSPCA only to be told that the deer, which had broken its leg, would have to be euthanised because of its injury. But the Olympian, decided instead to have the animal cared for by staff at the local Tiggy Winkles animal hospital.

Revealing his attempts to rescue the deer to his 155,000 Twitter followers, he wrote: “Just carried an injured deer about 2 miles home and now awaiting the RSPCA to come and help the little fella. Poor thing has a broken leg.” He then provided updates, describing how staff at the animal hospital had put its leg in a splint and how they were hopeful it would survive. Not wanting to leave it in pain, he carried it two miles and arrived home exhausted and covered in blood to the astonishment of his partner Susie.